Abstract
Simple SummaryFeather pecking is a behavior frequently occurring in commercial layer flocks. It often leads to skin injuries and cannibalism. Besides economic losses, severe animal welfare problems cannot be ignored. Previous research has shown that the trait is heritable. Thus breeding against feather pecking is possible, but phenotyping in a commercial environment is economically unfeasible at the moment because of the lack of proper techniques. Therefore, understanding the genetic background of the trait is mandatory to establish a genomic breeding program. This would require genotypic information of the hens, which is feasible under practical conditions. In the present study, we used different methods to identify regions in the genome that influence feather pecking and extreme feather pecking. We found one trait associated with the genomic region. The use of genotypic information from this region in terms of selection against the undesired behavior may help to improve animal welfare in layer flocks.Feather pecking (FP) is a longstanding serious problem in commercial flocks of laying hens. It is a highly polygenic trait and the genetic background is still not completely understood. In order to find genomic regions influencing FP, selection signatures between laying hen lines divergently selected for high and low feather pecking were mapped using the intra-population iHS and the inter-population FST approach. In addition, the existence of an extreme subgroup of FP hens (EFP) across both selected lines has been demonstrated by fitting a mixture of negative binomial distributions to the data and calculating the posterior probability of belonging to the extreme subgroup (pEFP) for each hen. A genomewide association study (GWAS) was performed for the traits pEFP and FP delivered (FPD) with a subsequent post GWAS analysis. Mapping of selection signatures revealed no clear regions under selection. GWAS revealed a region on Chromosome 1, where the existence of a QTL influencing FP is likely. The candidate genes found in this region are a part of the GABAergic system, which has already been linked to FP in previous studies. Despite the polygenic nature of FP, selection on these candidate genes may reduce FP.
Highlights
Feather pecking is a long known and still existing problem in commercial flocks of laying hens.It causes feather damages and skin lesions often resulting in cannibalism, which is an animal welfareAnimals 2020, 10, 262; doi:10.3390/ani10020262 www.mdpi.com/journal/animalsAnimals 2020, 10, 262 issue and leads to economic losses
The candidate genes found in this region are a part of the GABAergic system, which has already been linked to Feather pecking (FP) in previous studies
We showed that extreme feather pecking hens came more than twice as often into the motivation period for feather pecking and pecked about five times more feathers than the other hens when they were in the motivation period
Summary
Feather pecking is a long known and still existing problem in commercial flocks of laying hens.It causes feather damages and skin lesions often resulting in cannibalism, which is an animal welfareAnimals 2020, 10, 262; doi:10.3390/ani10020262 www.mdpi.com/journal/animalsAnimals 2020, 10, 262 issue and leads to economic losses. Feather pecking is a long known and still existing problem in commercial flocks of laying hens. It causes feather damages and skin lesions often resulting in cannibalism, which is an animal welfare. For years it has been a topic of intensive research and many aspects influencing feather pecking have already been revealed like stocking density, light intensity, nutrition, or litter [1]. Besides these environmental factors, genetic factors were shown to influence the occurrence of feather pecking as well. Low to medium heritabilities were frequently found [2,3] indicating the possibility to breed for this trait which has been proven in several selection experiments [4].
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