Research into chicken/human relationship to start in UK
Findings will form basis of a nationwide information network
on poultry domestication
How the relationship between people and chickens has developed over the past 8,000 years is the
focus of a new research project in the UK.
Researchers from Bournemouth University, as
well as from the universities of Durham, Nottingham, Leicester, Roehampton and
York, will be examining when and how rapidly domesticated chickens spread
across Europe and the history of their exploitation for meat and eggs. Research
will include metrical and DNA analysis of modern and ancient bones to trace the
development of different breeds.
The principal investigator for the project, Bournemouth
University's Dr. Mark Maltby, comments: "This is a fantastic opportunity
to work with a team of high international esteem drawn from a wide range of
disciplines that includes genetics, cultural anthropology, history and
archaeological science. We are united by our mutual research interests in how
chickens and people have interacted in the past and present."
Work is due to begin in January 2014 and the research will
be completed in 2017. The results will form the basis of a series of
exhibitions in museums and other venues throughout the UK, making up "The
Chicken Trail" that will tell the story of the chicken's domestication in
Europe. There are also plans to display some of the research findings in
butchers' shops.
I look forward to the results of this interesting project! Documenting chicken history will prove very enlightening. The relationship between people and chickens is complex.
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