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Other poultry

Turkeys are native to Latin America. They were introduced into Europe in the 1500s with the European colonization of Central America, and are now raised worldwide. Breeds raised intensively usually have white feathers, while black-feathered birds are kept by family poultry producers.

Guinea fowl are native to West Africa but are now found in many parts of the world. They are kept in large, intensive systems in countries such as France and Italy. Domesticated guinea fowl come in three principal varieties – Pearl, White and Lavender, Pearl being by far the most common. Birds have purplish-grey feathers regularly dotted or “pearled” with white. White guinea fowl have pure white feathers while Lavender have light-grey feathers dotted with white.

Geese were probably domesticated in Egypt about 3 000 years ago, and were among the first animals to be domesticated. Today, they are raised all over the world, primarily for meat, and they also produce excellent feathers. The great variety in the breed sizes of geese allows them to be kept under various management conditions. Nonetheless, geese are not very common in family poultry production, except in China, where families mainly raise local breeds.

Did you know?

  • In 2020, more than 450 million turkeys were kept around the world. Geese and guinea fowl together amounted to 364 million birds.