Early Stress Causes Sex-Specific, Life-Long Changes in Behaviour, Levels of Gonadal Hormones, and Gene Expression in Chickens

Elfwing, Magnus; Nätt, Daniel; Goerlich-Jansson, Vivian C.; Persson, Mia; Hjelm, Jonas; Jensen, Per

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125808

Cited by 37 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…They act to facilitate adaptive behavioural responses by providing the metabolic requirements for flight or fight responses (reviewed in Sapolsky et al 2000). The males recorded significant higher corticosterone levels in all the breeds (VB males 3.78 ± 1.8 females 2.84 ± 1.3; BP males 2.20 ± 1.9 females 1.19 ± 0.99 and RM 2.6 ± 1.74 females 1.65 ± 0.98), these results agree with the findings by Elfwing et al (2015) who hypotized that in male birds an early stress caused a higher HPA-reaction.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

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Stress and reactivity in three Italian chicken breeds

Ferrante

Mugnai

Ferrari

et al. 2016

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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Heterophil to lymphocyte ratio, plasma corticosterone and tonic immobility test, plumage and leg score (Food Pad Dermatitis, FPD) are frequently used as indicators of welfare in chickens. Three traditional Italian chicken breeds (60 birds/group) were studied: Valdarnese Bianca (VB), Bionda Piemontese (BP) and Robusta Maculata (RM). At 80 days of age, reactivity was tested through Tonic Immobility (TI) and plumage and leg score tests. Immediately after phenotypical and behavioural tests, the blood samples were collected from the ulnar vein of chickens. TI duration was not significant among the breeds (VB 72.2 ± 8.3 s; BP 95.2 ± 9.0 s; RM 76.5 ± 8.6 s; mean ± SEM). RM and BP needed a mean number of induction significantly higher than VB (RM ¼ 1.84 ± 0.1; BP ¼ 1.96 ± 0.1; VB ¼ 1.38 ± 0.1; p < 0.0001). The highest corticosterone mean concentration (3.4 ± 0.23 ng/mL) was found in the VB breed, whereas the lowest (1.71 ± 0.21 ng/mL) was found in BP birds. The heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratio was significantly (p < 0.0001) higher in the VB breed (0.86 ± 0.03) than BP (0.78 ± 0.02) and RM (0.75 ± 0.03). In all birds neither plumage damages nor FPD were found. In conclusion, the three breeds showed the typical reactivity of rural breeds adapted to alternative and organic rearing systems; the anti-predatory response, the plasma corticosterone concentration and the H/L ratio could be considered a positive adaptation indicator. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…No effects of sex on TI duration and number of induction were found in all breeds; also Elfwing et al (2015) did not found any effect of sex on TI duration and number of inductions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Stress and reactivity in three Italian chicken breeds

Ferrante

Mugnai

Ferrari

et al. 2016

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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“…In addition, though sex differences have not been widely studied in human studies or seen in many results, the interaction of prenatal opiate exposure, poor environmental conditions or stress, and the sex of the individual are likely important to consider when examining the immediate and long-term consequences of prenatal opiate exposure on cognitive outcomes. This is particularly important given that there is substantial evidence that males may be more vulnerable to the impact of early-life stressors such as maternal separation [50][51][52][53]. In addition, the observations of Slamberova et al [43] and Nasiraei-Moghadam et al [44] in rodents suggest that sex hormones during puberty may play a role in the sexdependent risk of cognitive and behavioural deficits caused by prenatal opiate exposure.…”

Section: (A) Prenatal Exposure To Opiatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An examination of sex differences in the effects of early-life opiate and alcohol exposure

Terasaki¹,

Gomez²,

Schwarz³

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 16 to a theme issue 'Multifaceted origins of sex differences in the brain'. Early-life exposure to drugs and alcohol is one of the most preventable causes of developmental, behavioural and learning disorders in children. Thus a significant amount of basic, animal and human research has focused on understanding the behavioural consequences and the associated neural effects of exposure to drugs and alcohol during early brain development. Despite this, much of the previous research that has been done on this topic has used predominantly male subjects or rodents. While many of the findings from these male-specific studies may ultimately apply to females, the purpose of this review is to highlight the research that has also examined sex as a factor and found striking differences between the sexes in their response to early-life opiate and alcohol exposure. Finally, we will also provide a framework for scientists interested in examining sex as a factor in future experiments that specifically examine the consequences of early-life drug and alcohol exposure.

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“…This has been investigated in rats; daily maternal separation during the first three weeks of life decreased ACTH levels in males later in life, whereas females displayed more emotional reactivity (Renard et al, 2007). Sex-specific alterations to the stress response have also been observed chickens (Goerlich et al, 2012;Elfwing et al, 2015).…”

Section: Hpg-axismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In stress treated males, a shorter tonic immobility duration and increased anxiety in an open field setting was seen, as well as a tendency towards delayed sexual maturation. (Elfwing et al, 2015).…”

Section: Postnatal Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

Ericsson¹

2016

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The domestication is the process where animals have adapted to human conditions. A prerequisite for domestication is tame behaviour towards humans and subsequently, selection for other desirable traits took place which led to changes in several behavioural and physiological parameters. The domestication of chickens (Gallus gallus) was initiated around 8000 years ago, and today we see clear phenotypic and genotypic alterations when comparing domestic breeds with the wild ancestor. Our modern domestic production breeds have been selected for, and still undergo heavy selection for high meat and egg yields. Beside obvious morphological changes, studies investigating behavioural differences between the ancestral Red Junglefowl and domestic breeds show, for example, differences in fearfulness, foraging strategies, exploratory behaviour and sociality. The modern production environments are intense and already from hatch chicks are exposed to harsh conditions. From an animal welfare perspective, the production environment contain many stressful aspects. The shift in stressor types between wild and captive conditions have likely contributed to alterations in stress tolerance when comparing domestic breeds to the wild ancestors. Previous research on mammalian models have underlined that early-life stressor exposure can induce negative consequences both immediately and in adulthood, but can also affect the offspring in a transgenerational fashion. The effects observed are for example disturbance of normal brain development, a hyper-reactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) -axis, decreased immune function and increased risk of developing cognitive dysfunction and abnormal behaviour. In chickens, the long-term effects of stress during the chick phase and during puberty are not well-investigated, and further, conflicting data has been presented on the hatchling HPA-axis reactivity.In this thesis, results from four projects are presented, which all concern stress and welfare at different ages in chickens. The development of the HPA-axis and how chicks respond to early stress both on the short-and long term was investigated. Furthermore, an experiment on the effects of stress exposure a different ages during puberty was conducted, in search of particularly stress-sensitive periods. Two papers address domestication effects on the stress response.In paper I, the results show that the HPA-axis is fully functioning at hatch, resulting in elevated corticosterone levels at exposure to stressful conditions. Breed differences indicate domestication effects on the reactivity and development of the HPA-axis; the Red Junglefowl displayed a lower corticosterone baseline and a lower stress response on day one, compared to a domestic breed, whereas the results were the opposite on day 23. Similar results were seen in paper IV, conducted on adult birds, where the Red Junglefowl had a more pronounced reaction to acute stress but a faster recovery period, both with respect to behaviour and physiology. In commercial hatcheries, chic...

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Early Stress Causes Sex-Specific, Life-Long Changes in Behaviour, Levels of Gonadal Hormones, and Gene Expression in Chickens

Cited by 37 publications

References 38 publications

Stress and reactivity in three Italian chicken breeds

Stress and reactivity in three Italian chicken breeds

An examination of sex differences in the effects of early-life opiate and alcohol exposure

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

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