Removal of roosters alters the domestic phenotype and microbial and genetic profile of hens
Autor: | Huagui Liu, Jikun Wang, Tao Yin, Xingbo Zhao, Jian Zhang, H. J. Zhang, Dan Wang, Langqing Liu, Simon P. Turner, Hua Li, Minghua Kong, Siyu Chen, Xu Zhu, Hai Xiang |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
biology Thigh muscle Rooster biology.organism_classification Feed conversion ratio Phenotype General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Genetic profile Transcriptome 03 medical and health sciences Cecum 030104 developmental biology 0302 clinical medicine Animal science medicine.anatomical_structure 030220 oncology & carcinogenesis medicine Microbiome General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science |
Zdroj: | Science China Life Sciences. 64:1964-1976 |
ISSN: | 1869-1889 1674-7305 |
Popis: | Hens are raised apart from roosters in modern poultry production, a substantial change from their natural social structure. We compared productivity, injuries, behavior, physiology, microbiome and transcriptome of hens housed with (R+) or without (R-) roosters to quantify the effects of this change in social structure. Hens were raised free-range from 70 to 280 days when 30 birds per treatment were assigned to battery cages until Day 315 (R+C vs. R-C), while 30 birds per treatment remained in free-range pens (R+F vs. R-F). Response to a novel environment and object, behavioral time budgets, cecum microbiome, blood composition and transcriptomic sequencing of thigh muscle and spleen were analyzed. Hens housed without roosters showed better survival, consumed less food, produced more eggs and had better feed conversion. R+F hens clustered around the rooster and were less mobile in the novel environment and object tests. R+F hens displayed the richest microbiome, and the presence of roosters resulted in differentially expressed genes related to muscle development, cellular processes, environmental information processing and immune function. Removing roosters from housed hens intensified desirable characteristics favored by domestication probably operating by deprivation of mating behavior and reduced fear, along with altered microbial and genetic function. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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