Broiler - Domestication and Modern Breeding

Domestication and Modern Breeding

The traditional poultry farming view of the domestication of the chicken is stated in Encyclopædia Britannica (2007): "Humans first domesticated chickens of Indian origin for the purpose of cockfighting in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Very little formal attention was given to egg or meat production... "

Before the development of modern commercial meat breeds (cows, chickens, etc.) broilers consisted mostly of young male chickens (cockerels) which were culled from farm flocks. Pedigree breeding began around 1916. Magazines for the poultry industry existed at this time. A hybrid variety of chicken was produced from a cross of male of a naturally double-breasted Cornish strain and a female of a tall, large-boned strain of white Plymouth Rocks. This first attempt at a hybrid meat breed was introduced in the 1930s and became dominant in the 1960s. The original cross was plagued by problems of low fertility, slow growth, and disease susceptibility, and modern broilers have gradually become very different from the Cornish/Rock hybrid.