Search Here

It was Europeans who brought the chickens to the New World, according to a new study. The astonishing findings of the study contrast with the previous study that concluded Polynesians brought chickens to the New World. 

Before reaching such a bold conclusion, researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA that they extracted from feathers of modern chicken on South Pacific islands. They repeated the same process for extracting DNA from chicken bones that were excavated from archaeological sites in islands such as Hawaii, Rapa Nui and Niue. 

They found that the bones in chicken suggested a link between the chickens of Pacific and South America. They further added that ancient chicken DNA did not show any relation between pre-Columbian contact and those areas. 

Researchers also assessed the Polynesian sequences obtained from chickens in South America which provides a complete different story. According to them, those chickens were either not in much with the native people in South American or Polynesians did not bring the poultry with them, reported Australian Tribune. 

"We were also able to trace the origins of these lineages back into the Philippines, providing clues about the source of the original Polynesian chicken populations," said Lead researcher Dr. Vicki Thomson in a press release while talking about identifying genetic signatures of the original Polynesian chickens.

"This early domestic breed may contain valuable genetic diversity for modern poultry flocks which have become genetically impoverished during industrialized farming, and are at considerable risk from diseases such as avian influenza," wrote phys.org. 

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.