Why can we eat duck meat medium rare, treating it like red meat, but chicken, which is white meat, has to be fully cooked, even though both are types of birds?

Question

Why can we eat duck meat medium rare, treating it like red meat, but chicken, which is white meat, has to be fully cooked, even though both are types of birds?

In: Other

Answer 1

Duck meat has a different type of muscle than chicken meat so we cook it differently. Also duck is not a common carrier of salmonella like chickens are. There are disagreements however, the USDA for example recommends all poultry including duck and chicken to be cooked to 165F.