American Pekin
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| Conservation status | FAO (2007): not at risk |
|---|---|
| Other names |
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| Country of origin | China |
| Distribution | world-wide |
| Use | meat |
| Traits | |
| Weight |
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| Egg colour | white or tinted |
| Classification | |
| APA | heavy |
| EE | yes |
| PCGB | no |
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The Pekin or Peking, also White Pekin, is an American breed of domestic duck, reared principally for meat. It derives from birds brought to the United States from China in the nineteenth century, and is now bred in many countries, and in all continents. It is a distinct and separate breed from the German Pekin, which derives from the same Chinese stock but has different breeding.
The mallard was domesticated in China before 1000 AD, probably much earlier. Force-feeding of ducks is documented from the tenth century, under the Five Dynasties. The Chinese were sophisticated breeders of ducks. Among several breeds they created was one named shi-chin-ya-tze, or roughly "ten-pound duck".
In 1872, at the request of a businessman named McGrath, fifteen white ducks hatched in Peking (now called Beijing) were loaded at Shanghai by James E. Palmer of Stonington, Connecticut, for shipment to the United States. Nine birds – six ducks and three drakes – survived the voyage, which took 124 days and reached New York City on 13 March 1873. Five of the surviving birds were dispatched to McGrath, but were eaten before they reached him. Palmer's four birds became the foundation stock of the American Pekin; by July 1873, his three ducks had laid more than three hundred eggs.
In 1874 the Pekin was included in the first edition of the Standard of Perfection published by the new American Poultry Association. It was soon in widespread production for slaughter. Until that time, a popular breed raised for meat had been the Cayuga, which had the disadvantage of dark feathering, so that any fluff remaining on the carcass was easily seen; the white-feathered Pekin was preferable.
Other birds of the same type were imported to the United Kingdom in 1872, and from there soon reached Germany, where they gave rise to the German Pekin, a distinct and separate breed. In Germany the Chinese ducks were cross-bred with upright white ducks brought from Japan by Dutch ships, resulting in birds with a steep body angle; those taken to the United States were crossed with birds of the British Aylesbury breed, which led to birds with a more horizontal stance. The Pekin in the United Kingdom derives from birds imported from Germany from about 1970.
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Wikipedia