What would happen to humans if there were no chickens in the world?

How many chickens are there on earth? The answer is 2.3 billion. So what if one day all these chickens disappeared in one night? How does it affect people?

As early as 3,100 years ago, the Polynesians carried chickens on long voyages, in addition to eating chicken and eggs everywhere, they also used chicken bones to make sewing needles and flutes.

The ancient Greeks even considered chickens to be “victory birds”, and they only consumed chicken on the eve of battle with the enemy – with the implication that luck and victory would be on their side.

Today, chicken has become mankind’s most important source of meat. As long as we provide shelter and feed, chickens can continuously provide humans with a source of high-quality animal protein.

Humans consume at least 120 million tons of chicken and 1.2 trillion eggs every year, which is a huge number. About eight years ago, on the day of the NFL (National Football League) game, 1.25 billion chicken wings were sold across the United States while watching the show.

Chicken is not only rich in nutrients but also has a delicious taste, whether fried, stewed or grilled, making foodies flutter.

However, people’s preference for chicken is also a long process, before the 1950s, Americans liked red meat like beef and pork and their consumption of these meats was high. about 2.5 times more than chicken.

Later, scientists proved that red meat such as pork, beef, sheep has more cholesterol, while white meat such as chicken, duck, fish is healthier, so white meat has gradually replaced red meat. For Americans, duck meat is too fishy, ​​while fish meat has many bones, and this is where the advantage of chicken begins to appear.

Many large chicken farms have sprung up like mushrooms, along with the development of technology and breeding techniques, chicken breeds are also updated with more and more numbers. In the decades that followed, chicken began to overtake beef consumption and gradually became one of man’s favorite meats.

Chickens today are producing more meat, consuming less feed and taking less time to market. Scientists have even bred chickens that taste as sweet as beef.

If chickens were to suddenly disappear from the world, Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and American countries like Mexico would suffer the most, because people in these countries mainly eat chicken and eggs – on average per day. a year, a Mexican will consume 350 eggs and 160 kg of chicken.

About 10 years ago, avian flu spread in Mexico, making millions of poultry sick and forced to be culled, as a result of which the price of chicken and eggs in this country skyrocketed. Locals have no choice but to take to the streets to march to call on the government to come up with measures to overcome the “egg crisis”.

In 2011, chicken prices in Egypt nearly quadrupled. Locals also began to protest and took to the streets to protest to stabilize prices. The TV station at that time had to urgently delete videos with scenes of chicken eating so as not to provoke the spirit of the people.

As one of the ancestors of modern chickens, wild chickens were domesticated by humans more than 4,000 years ago. Domestic chickens have inherited their excellent adaptability and also acquired the genetic DNA of other jungle fowl subspecies.

Chickens are the species with the most genetic diversity of all domesticated animals except pigs, so to speak, all the good genes of the original chicken breed have been inherited by modern chickens.

If chickens disappear, can meats like beef and pork replace chicken?

Let’s talk about beef first, taking the United States as an example, 25% of the meat consumed by Americans is beef.

If beef were used to fill the chicken void, the area of ​​the cattle farm would expand 11 times the original chicken farm area, an area equivalent to the area of ​​Australia and Africa combined, and equivalent to the size of the original chicken farm. equivalent to one third of the total arable land on earth.

What about using pork instead of chicken? Currently there are about 1.1 billion pigs in the world. If you want pork to replace chicken, you must double the current number of pigs – 2.2 billion, and the growth rate of pigs is not much faster than cows. , the conversion rate to meat is much lower than that of chicken. To produce one pound of pork requires 10% more feed than chicken.

Livestock such as sheep and cattle have ruminant behavior, in the process releasing large amounts of methane into the air, which can lead to the greenhouse effect, but is also the main culprit of warming. Global. For the same production of 1 kg of meat, cattle and sheep emit seven times more greenhouse gases than chickens.

Ducks and swans seem to be the most suitable meat alternatives, but they need to be raised in water, which is more difficult to keep in captivity than chickens. In addition, ducks and geese do not have as good disease resistance as chickens, they are susceptible to parasites in the body, the quality of meat is also easily changed and the taste is not as good as chicken.

Currently, every year, humans need to consume nearly 1.1 trillion tons of chicken and 1 trillion eggs. With an annual output of the fishing industry of 78 million tons, it is difficult to meet human needs.

If chickens disappear, the most severe impact will probably be in some Southeast Asian and African countries, where local economies are underdeveloped and protein sources are limited, so chickens will become a source of quality protein. cheapest high quality.

Chicken and eggs are rich in lysine and threonine. These two substances are very beneficial to humans, but the human body cannot produce them, so chicken is also the most important source of nutrition for many poor people.

Eggs also play a mysterious role as a key ingredient in the production of flu vaccines, of which 420 million doses are produced globally each year.

Influenza virus strains are injected into the eggs, where the virus can multiply and provide a nutritious and sterile environment. The scientists were then able to obtain a liquid filled with the virus, and the egg’s role was irreplaceable.

When chickens disappear, people’s eating habits will change, and bakers will no longer be able to make soft and cheap desserts as they do now.

Without eggs, these desserts would lose their current texture and shine and be much less fluffy. And cakes made from duck eggs, goose eggs or quail eggs can replace chicken eggs, but the price will certainly increase.

However, there are two sides to everything, as chickens disappear, fewer people will get salmonella. Salmonella is the most common bacteria in chickens, killing nearly 120,000 people each year and sickening tens of millions more.

For thousands of years, chickens have accompanied humans, if one day chickens really disappear, if there is no other animal to replace them, the wealth that chickens bring to people will also disappear. A world without chickens certainly wouldn’t be any good.