Livestock and Poultry Management

Chickens were domesticated from wild junglefowl thousands of years ago, yet the precise geographic origins and genetic pathways of that process remain contested, with mitochondrial DNA studies continuing to revise earlier assumptions. Research in this area examines how indigenous and village poultry breeds have diverged over millennia, what those genetic signatures reveal about ancient human migration and trade, and how small-scale family poultry keeping sustains rural livelihoods—particularly for women—across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. A central open question is how to balance the preservation of genetically diverse local breeds against pressure from commercial production systems that threaten to displace them. Ongoing work draws on ancient DNA from archaeological sites, including Polynesian contexts, to reconstruct domestication timelines and inform both conservation strategies and poverty-reduction programs tied to poultry production.

Works

59,188

Total citations

212,251

Keywords

Chicken DomesticationGenetic DiversityVillage PoultryMitochondrial DNAIndigenous BreedsFamily Poultry