Poultry

From the time of initial domestication of wild birds, poultry have served humans as a source of food and a subject of cultural use, similar to other livestock species. The availability of genomic resources ranges from a fully annotated whole genome sequence for the chicken (Gallus gallus) to highly developed linkage maps in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), to large insert libraries and at least some species-specific markers in the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos), zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), brown kiwi (Apteryx australis), and California condor (Gymnogyps californianus). Genomic resources are very limited in other species of birds. The annotated chicken genome sequence will pave the way for improving traits of economic importance in the chicken, and will serve as a reference sequence in comparative mapping of other domesticated and wild bird species.