Chicken genomics: feather-pecking and victim pigmentation.
Feather-pecking in domestic birds is associated with cannibalism and severe welfare problems. It is a dramatic example of a spiteful behaviour in which the victim's fitness is reduced for no immediate direct benefit to the perpetrator and its evolution is unexplained. Here we show that the plumage pigmentation of a chicken may predispose it to become a victim: birds suffer more drastic feather-pecking when the colour of their plumage is due to the expression of a wild recessive allele at PMEL17, a gene that controls plumage melanization, and when these birds are relatively common in a flock. These findings, obtained using an intercross between a domestic fowl and its wild ancestor, have implications for the welfare of domestic species and offer insight into the genetic changes associated with the evolution of feather-pecking during the early stages of domestication.
Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 234, 53223 Skara, Sweden.
Linda
L
Keeling
Leif
L
Andersson
Karin E
KE
Schütz
Susanne
S
Kerje
Robert
R
Fredriksson
Orjan
O
Carlborg
Charles K
CK
Cornwallis
Tommaso
T
Pizzari
Per
P
Jensen
D000374:Aggression; D000483:Alleles; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005241:Feathers / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005799:Genes, Dominant / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D010641:Phenotype; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics; D012930:Social Dominance; D058951:gp100 Melanoma Antigen
D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D011506:Proteins; D058951:gp100 Melanoma Antigen