Serotonin release in the caudal nidopallium of adult laying hens genetically selected for high and low feather pecking behavior: An in vivo microdialysis study

Kops, Marjolein S.; Kjaer, Joergen; Güntürkün, Onur; Westphal, Koen G.C.; Korte-Bouws, G.A.H.; Olivier, Berend; Bolhuis, J.E.; Korte, S. Mechiel

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.03.050

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Aggressive behaviour and stress have been shown to be related to the supply of dietary tryptophan and/or brain 5-HT in several animal and human studies [14–18], including studies on pigs [28, 64]. Ursinus et al [19] recently found that pigs that perform tail biting behaviour had lowered blood 5-HT levels, and, in line with this, feather pecking chickens also showed altered peripheral [65] and central 5-HT [66, 67] metabolism. This could either be due to a direct effect of 5-HT on damaging behaviour demonstrated experimentally for chickens only [68], or reflect lowered AA availability for neurotransmitter synthesis, either or not caused by a lowered health status.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A link between damaging behaviour in pigs, sanitary conditions, and dietary protein and amino acid supply

et al. 2017

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The tendency to reduce crude protein (CP) levels in pig diets to increase protein efficiency may increase the occurrence of damaging behaviours such as ear and tail biting, particularly for pigs kept under suboptimal health conditions. We studied, in a 2×2×2 factorial design, 576 tail-docked growing-finishing entire male pigs in 64 pens, subjected to low (LSC) vs. high sanitary conditions (HSC), and fed a normal CP (NP) vs. a low CP diet (LP, 80% of NP) ad libitum, with a basal amino acid (AA) profile or supplemented AA profile with extra threonine, tryptophan and methionine. The HSC pigs were vaccinated in the first nine weeks of life and received antibiotics at arrival at experimental farm at ten weeks, after which they were kept in a disinfected part of the farm with a strict hygiene protocol. The LSC pigs were kept on the same farm in non-disinfected pens to which manure from another pig farm was introduced fortnightly. At 15, 18, and 24 weeks of age, prevalence of tail and ear damage and of tail and ear wounds was scored. At 20 and 23 weeks of age, frequencies of biting behaviour and aggression were scored for 10×10 min per pen per week. The prevalence of ear damage during the finisher phase (47 vs. 32% of pigs, P < 0.0001) and the frequency of ear biting (1.3 vs. 1.2 times per hour, P = 0.03) were increased in LSC compared with HSC pigs. This effect on ear biting was diet dependent, however, the supplemented AA profile reduced ear biting only in LSC pigs by 18% (SC × AA profile, P < 0.01). The prevalence of tail wounds was lower for pigs in LSC (13 ± 0.02) than for pigs in HSC (0.22 ± 0.03) in the grower phase (P < 0.007). Regardless of AA profile or sanitary status, LP pigs showed more ear biting (+20%, P < 0.05), tail biting (+25%, P < 0.10), belly nosing (+152%, P < 0.01), other oral manipulation directed at pen mates (+13%, P < 0.05), and aggression (+30%, P < 0.01) than NP pigs, with no effect on ear or tail damage. In conclusion, both low sanitary conditions and a reduction of dietary protein increase the occurrence of damaging behaviours in pigs and therefore may negatively impact pig welfare. Attention should be paid to the impact of dietary nutrient composition on pig behaviour and welfare, particularly when pigs are kept under suboptimal (sanitary) conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A link between damaging behaviour in pigs, sanitary conditions, and dietary protein and amino acid supply

et al. 2017

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“…It is difficult to determine, whether these differences are a cause for FP or just a consequence of feather consumption. The hypothesis of a link with the gut microbiome is, however, convincing as FP is influenced by the serotonergic system [14][15][16], which comprises a central and a peripheral part [17]. Central serotonin partly controls dopamine and thus also affects reward-related behaviors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the brain transcriptome in lines of laying hens divergently selected for feather pecking

et al. 2020

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Background: Feather pecking (FP) in laying hens reduces animal welfare and leads to economic losses for the layer industry. FP is considered a heritable condition that is influenced by dysregulation of neurotransmitter homeostasis, the gut microbiome, and the immune system. To identify genes and biological pathways responsible for FP behavior we compared the brain transcriptomes of 48 hens divergently selected for FP. In addition, we tested if high feather peckers (HFP) and low feather peckers (LFP) respond differently to light since light has been shown to trigger FP behavior. Results: Of approximately 48 million reads/sample an average of 98.4% were mapped to the chicken genome (GRCg6a). We found 13,070 expressed genes in the analyzed brains of which 423 showed differential expression between HFP and LFP. Genes of uncertain function and non-coding RNAs were overrepresented among those transcripts. Functional analyses revealed the involvement of cholinergic signaling, postsynaptic activity, membrane channels, and the immune system. After the light stimulus, 28 genes were found to be differentially expressed. These included an interaction cluster of core components of the circadian clock. However, differences in the response to light between HFP and LFP were not detectable. Conclusions: Genes involved in cholinergic signaling, channel activity, synaptic transmission, and immune response were found to be involved in FP behavior. We propose a model in which the gut microbiota modulates the immune system, which in turn affects cholinergic signaling. This might have an influence on monoamine signaling with possible involvement of GABA or glutamate signaling.

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“…Wysocki et al (2013) identified a number of candidate genes related to neurotransmission and psychopathological disorders including monoamine signaling [42]. The available genomic and transcriptomic studies so far point to a major role of monoamine signaling in FP, which fits well with other available data describing the links between the dopaminergic and serotonergic system and FP [43,44,45,46,47]. Otherwise, however, little congruence has been found among studies, which is to be expected as FP is a complex trait, with heritability ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 [4,48,49,50].…”

Section: Understanding Feather Pecking Through “-Omics” Approachesmentioning

confidence: 61%

Review of Sensor Technologies in Animal Breeding: Phenotyping Behaviors of Laying Hens to Select Against Feather Pecking

Ellen

Sluis

Siegford

et al. 2019

Animals

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Damaging behaviors, like feather pecking (FP), have large economic and welfare consequences in the commercial laying hen industry. Selective breeding can be used to obtain animals that are less likely to perform damaging behavior on their pen-mates. However, with the growing tendency to keep birds in large groups, identifying specific birds that are performing or receiving FP is difficult. With current developments in sensor technologies, it may now be possible to identify laying hens in large groups that show less FP behavior and select them for breeding. We propose using a combination of sensor technology and genomic methods to identify feather peckers and victims in groups. In this review, we will describe the use of “-omics” approaches to understand FP and give an overview of sensor technologies that can be used for animal monitoring, such as ultra-wideband, radio frequency identification, and computer vision. We will then discuss the identification of indicator traits from both sensor technologies and genomics approaches that can be used to select animals for breeding against damaging behavior.

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Serotonin release in the caudal nidopallium of adult laying hens genetically selected for high and low feather pecking behavior: An in vivo microdialysis study

Cited by 15 publications

References 68 publications

A link between damaging behaviour in pigs, sanitary conditions, and dietary protein and amino acid supply

A link between damaging behaviour in pigs, sanitary conditions, and dietary protein and amino acid supply

Analysis of the brain transcriptome in lines of laying hens divergently selected for feather pecking

Review of Sensor Technologies in Animal Breeding: Phenotyping Behaviors of Laying Hens to Select Against Feather Pecking

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