"Delicious", "fragrant, really fragrant"... Everyone has memories of a bowl of turkey soup. And the competition between native chickens and foreign chickens has a long history. How does the native chicken "flapping its wings and taking off", and what are its wings that take off?
According to China Youth Daily, from 1980 to 2000, the number of sows in Guangdong's Dahua White Pig dropped from 13,000 to several hundred... "Soil pigs" suffered a "pigsty crisis", and China's local livestock and poultry resources attracted attention.
The reporter learned from the interview that a "local chicken breed" protection action has been carried out for 40 years. At the Shaobo Base of the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the number of local chicken species protected has reached 32, which is the largest poultry live poultry resource bank in China and the largest preserved resource in the world. In the future, the seed preservation base will be relocated to Yizheng Yuetang, at which time, the planned seed protection will reach 60.
For the people, the most direct thing is, "protect the local chicken breeds, and the delicious local chicken soup can be drunk for a long time." Han Wei, associate researcher of the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Germplasm Resources Conservation and Evaluation Research Office, said.
The crisis of the native chicken
"The foreign chicken is so good
Why raise native chickens?"
The Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is one of the earliest research institutions engaged in the research and protection of native chickens. In the memory of Zhang Xueyu, a former researcher at the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the earliest research on native chickens is mainly aimed at finding native chickens with high egg production and large meat production.
Of course, high egg production and large meat production are relatively speaking. Because even today, the local chicken breeds selected and bred are still unable to catch up with the foreign chickens (foreign chicken breeds) in these two aspects.
Due to the earliest attention to native chickens, the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences became one of the main institutions for the protection of local chicken breeds. From 1976 to 1984, in the first round of the national census of livestock and poultry genetic resources, it undertook the protection of some local chicken breeds. In 1978, it received 150,000 yuan of seed protection project funds. "150,000 yuan, which is very little to see now, but at the time, it was a huge amount of money."
In 1980, the national local poultry breed resource gene bank was established. There are four local chicken species that were first protected in the gene pool, namely the wolf mountain chicken in Jiangsu, the Xianju chicken and Xiaoshan chicken in Zhejiang, and the Gushi chicken in Henan. When they came to Yangzhou, the wolf pheasant was in the 1950s, the Xianju chicken was in 1975, the Xiaoshan chicken was in 1976, and the Gushi chicken was in 1978.
Zhang Xueyu said that many of the local chicken breeds that enter the poultry base are "endangered chicken breeds." At the end of the 1970s, foreign chickens entered China, foreign chickens produce more eggs, produce more meat, high feed conversion rate, the people love to raise, and the native chicken is not only not "welcomed" by the people, and many competent departments also "do not attach great importance to the preservation of local chicken breeds", "foreign chickens are so good, why should we raise native chickens" has become the view of many people.
Resources of native chickens
The best in the world!
At present, there are 114 species of native chickens in the country
After the first phase of the census, the census of native chickens and the protection, evaluation, identification and research work have been continued. In the 1990s, the chicken breeds that entered the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences included white-eared yellow chicken, Shouguang chicken, Youxi hemp chicken, Dongxiang green shell egg chicken, camellia chicken, luyuan chicken and so on.
From 2004 to 2010, the second national census of livestock and poultry resources. "This census is all-round and vigorous, with many resources used and a very large number of participants." Han Wei said that during this period, relevant departments and more and more people realized the importance of local chicken breeds.
Especially in 2009, under special circumstances, the import of foreign chickens was greatly restricted. "People's breeders have advantages, and the initiative is in the hands of others." He suddenly raised the price of breeders a lot, and our breeding companies had to buy them. But if we have a few local chicken breeds that can be replaced, and people deliberately set a time limit, we have other options. ”
In the second census, as many as 107 local chicken breeds were identified. "It can be said that chicken breeds have been surveyed in most parts of China, and seed farms have been established in various places."
The advantage of the native chicken is that it is rich in resources. "So many local chicken breed resources mean that we have a wealth of treasures. The next thing to do is to scientifically develop and utilize these treasures. ”
In fact, the excavation of "treasures" continues. Han Wei said that since 2010, there have been 7 more local chicken breeds. As of now, there are 114 local chicken breeds in China. "The number is the largest in the world."
China's local chicken breeds are rich in resources, due to China's complex climate and geographical environment, local chicken breeds are generally located in relatively isolated mountainous areas. These places "hear the sound of chickens and dogs" and happen to be a natural barrier for the protection of local chicken breeds.
The defense of the native chicken
rescue
Rushed to a farmer's house overnight to protect the "three yellow chickens"
Many native chickens are "reborn" on the verge of "endangerment". Zhang Xueyu still remembers the "rescue" of luyuan chickens.
This native chicken, native to Luyuan Town, Zhangjiagang, is a typical "three yellow chickens" (yellow feathers, yellow beaks, yellow feet), and the meat is delicious. In 1996, there was only one farm in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu Province, and there were only 40 deer. But by the time they got to the farm, the chickens had been sold to a farmer, "and we rushed to the farmer's house overnight and bought all the chickens back." ”
Zhejiang Xiaoshan chicken, after being protected in Yangzhou in 1976, was found in 2002 to be "endangered" in the place of origin.
exploit
The first batch of green shell layer chickens in one enterprise reached 100,000
Han Wei said that protecting the native chicken is not only to protect the delicious local chicken soup on the table, but also to protect the industry and industrial development. The good news is that compared with more than 40 years ago, people pay more and more attention to native chickens, the amount of native chickens is also increasing, and many places hope to have their own local characteristics of the local chickens.
The scientific development and utilization of the native chicken is the most effective protection of the native chicken. In fact, more and more native chickens have been commercially exploited. After Zhang Xueyu retired, he accepted the re-employment of a company. The company raised 100,000 native chickens (green-shelled layer chickens) in the first batch.
Each local chicken breed has its own characteristics. Such as the scoop chicken, it does not have a tail vertebrae, tail brown bone, etc., the tail shape is like a scoop; Beijing oil chicken, "three feathers" (crest, hair legs and beard mouth) is a physical feature; Huiyang beard chicken, named after the yellow hair, yellow mouth, yellow feet, beard; Anyiwa gray chicken, feathers are naturally tile gray, and even mistaken for a transgenic chicken...
study
Further determination of native chicken genes was carried out
Han Wei said that every local chicken breed protected by the gene bank needs to be determined by production traits and further studied. "Like the scoop chicken, we're measuring its genome to see what causes it." It is selected on the basis of research and then commercialized.
In the 1950s, the Poultry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences bred new wolf pheasants suitable for farm grazing. This kind of chicken is suitable for making a variety of famous dishes at different stages of growth, and the baby rooster is suitable for making wind chicken, which is distributed in Jiangdu, Yangzhong and Shanghai.
In the 1990s, after the institute protected the dongxiang green-shelled layer chickens, it conducted in-depth research and bred a national supporting line - Su poultry green shell layer chicken, which produced more than 99% of the eggs produced by the commodity generation of the supporting line. That is, only 1 out of 100 eggs is not green-shelled.
"Nowadays, the green-shelled layer chickens of Su poultry are raised all over the country." Zhang Xueyu said.
cultivate
Shao Bo chicken, Su poultry yellow chicken, WeiYang ma chicken and so on are popular
In addition to the green shell layer chicken of Su poultry, on the basis of local chicken breeds as the material, the technical staff of the Poultry Institute have also bred new varieties (supporting lines) such as Shao Bo chicken, Su poultry yellow chicken and Weiyang ma chicken through years of targeted breeding and the use of modern poultry breeding technology, which are deeply loved by breeders and consumers.
Other places such as silk feather black bone chicken, Wenchang chicken, Qingyuan ma chicken, Guangxi sanhuang chicken, etc., are now widely distributed throughout the country.
"Through modern breeding technology, on the basis of protecting the high-quality characteristics of local chicken breeds, it is the continuous work of poultry genetic breeding to minimize the gap with foreign chickens in terms of egg production and meat production." Han Wei said that this is a long-term process, after all, the foreign chickens that have entered China have gone through hundreds of years of scientific research precipitation.
Reporter Xiang Jiafu