From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ducks amongst other poultry.Poultry, on an image by Otto Scheuerer.
Poultry are a group ofdomesticatedbirds kept by humans for theireggs, theirmeat or theirfeathers.[1] These birds are most typically members of thesuperorderGalloanserae, especially the orderGalliformes (which includeschickens,quails,turkeys).[2] The term also includes birds that are killed for their meat, such as the youngpigeons (known as squabs) but does not include similar wild birds hunted for sport or food and known asgame. The word "poultry" comes from theFrench wordpoule, which itself is derived from theLatin wordpullus, which means game birds.[3]
Poultry is the second most widely eaten type of meat in the world, accounting for about 33% of total meat production all around the world compared topork at 36%.[4][5]
World production ofduck meat was about 4.2 million tonnes in 2011.China was producing two thirds of that total which means around 1.7 billion birds.[6]
