Ask HN: If we eat chicken can chicken evolve so that we fail to eat them
Can chicken develop some defense system that humans will ultimately fail to consume them?
or what is happening now, a virus passed by ticks that causes allergy reactions to any type of animal product.
"This specific allergy is related to a carbohydrate called alpha-gal"
Exactly. For some trait to evolve, individuals with it must be more likely to reproduce than others without it. In a hunting scenario, this in fact leads to evolution of traits that prevent chicken from getting eaten (because chicken that aren't eaten can have more offspring in the wild than those that are).
However, in farming, all reproduction is controlled. An inedible chicken wouldn't be allowed to reproduce. Hence any trait that is not directly favorable to humans is culled from the population before it can spread.
I don't know about a case where some chicken have escaped to the wild and make a stable colony and then (after many generations) evolved to escape easier from humans that want to capture them back. I guess there are some cases.
(There are some case of dogs that escaped and became feral. In particular https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo .)
well, in terms of escaping from a chicken farm, i'm not sure how long a chicken would survive in the wild, it's very common for domestic animals to not have the same survival skills than a feral animal?
but that is interesting about the dogs, i know that feral dogs are amazing adaptable, with Moscow dogs riding on the trains and sending "cute" dogs first for begging.