https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220606181159.htm
"Experts have found that an association with rice farming likely started a process that has led to chickens becoming one of the world's most numerous animals. They have also found evidence that chickens were initially regarded as exotica, and only
several centuries later used as a source of 'food'.
Previous efforts have claimed that chickens were domesticated up to 10,000 years ago in China, Southeast Asia, or India, and that chickens were present in Europe over 7,000 years ago.
The new studies show this is wrong, and that the driving force behind chicken domestication was the arrival of dry rice farming into southeast Asia where their wild ancestor, the red jungle fowl, lived. Dry rice farming acted as a magnet drawing wild
jungle fowl down from the trees, and kickstarting a closer relationship between people and the jungle fowl that resulted in chickens."
"...chicken becoming one of the world's most numerous animals" and nowadays a source of bird flu.
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