鸡 Chicken

鸡（学名：Gallus gallus domesticus），是鸟纲鸡形目雉科。鸡是家畜及家禽中數量最多，分佈也最廣的，2003年的總數超過二百四十億隻^[1]，世界上鸡的數量比所有其他的鳥都多。家雞最初的馴化作為家禽目的是為人們提供蛋、肉等食品。具有各種特色的雞蛋，為人們提供廉價優質的動物蛋白。

The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the red junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003,^[1] there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird. Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat and their eggs.

The earliest known domestication occurred in Northern China 8,000 BCE determined from archaeological chicken bones.^[2] Previously genetic studies have pointed to multiple maternal origins in Southeast, East, and South Asia, but with the clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originating in the Indian subcontinent. From India, the domesticated chicken was imported to Lydia in western Asia Minor, and to Greece by the fifth century BC.^[3] Fowl had been known in Egypt since the mid-15th century BC, with the "bird that gives birth every day" having come to Egypt from the land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the annals of Thutmose III.^[4][5][6]