Historical Background of Poultry Industry

It is believed that, domestication of poultry has been started in Asian countries. There is evidence that, the fowl was first, domesticated in South Asia probably well over 8000 years ago. The earliest record of poultry dates back to about 3200 BC in India. Chicken has been reared in Egypt since 1400 BC. The red jungle fowl, an Asian breed considered by many as the ancestors of modern poultry breeds. Recently, some evidence was found indicating that, the first domestication of the fowl took place much earlier, and not in South Asia but in China.

From being a back-yard type of an industry, poultry industry of Sri Lanka has developed into a commercial industry over the past three decades. In early 1950, the government of Sri Lanka launched a program to upgrade local   indigenous poultry population in the country. Since then, this sector has shown a phenomenal growth, most prominently in the broiler sector, mainly due to active participation of the private sector.

During 1950's, a part of the eggs and chicken meat were produced in Sri Lanka from local indigenous breeds and rests were imported from India. Production systems were backyard scavenging with no additional expenditure on feed. In 1960’s parent, birds were imported and until late 1970’ to early

1980’s, pure breeds such as White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red were distributed to farmers for egg production by the state -owned organization, the Central Poultry Research Institute, Karandagolla. The expansion of the industry commenced from 1970’s due to active participation of the state and the private sector.