An extract from an article by Dr. Peter Hunton of the World Poultry Science Association

摘要

Research has been the driver of the commercial poultry industry since its beginnings in the mid 20th century. Almost every aspect of today's egg industry can be traced back to research conducted during the past 60 years. For breeding companies such asISA, the foundations were faid back in the 1960s with practical research. One of the major centres of applied poultry breeding research was Canada's Animal Research Institute where a number of selected poultry lines were developed. These experimental lines showed clearly how genetics could be successfully applied to improve commercial laying stocks. However, all of this research depended on the original studies of Gregor Mendel, who first began to understand the process of heredity and the developmentof population genetics, which indicated how animal breeding might benefit from these early discoveries.