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Poultry

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

   Ducks amongst other poultry
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   Ducks amongst other poultry
   The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio.
   Enlarge
   The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio.

   Poultry is the class of domesticated fowl (birds) used for food or for
   their eggs. These most typically are members of the orders Galliformes
   (such as chickens and turkeys), and Anseriformes ( waterfowl such as
   ducks and geese).

   The word poultry is often used to refer to the meat of these birds. In
   a more general sense, it may refer to the meat of other birds, such as
   pigeons or doves, or game birds like pheasants.

Types of poultry

    Bird   Wild ancestor    Domestication            Uses
   chicken red junglefowl China, c. 3000 BC meat, eggs
   duck    various        various           meat, feathers, eggs
   goose   various        various           meat, feathers, eggs

   ostrich wild ostrich   Africa            meat, feathers, labour
   turkey  Wild Turkey    Mexico            meat

Cuts of poultry

   The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest,
   called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second
   segments of its legs, called the thigh and drumstick respectively.

   In chickens and turkeys, the flight muscles, not adapted for sustained
   use, have less oxygen-carrying myoglobin than the walking muscles, and
   are thus lighter in colour. This is the distinction between "white
   meat" and "dark meat". Waterfowl are adapted for sustained flight, and
   their breast meat is dark.
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   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poultry"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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