Genetic Determinism of Fearfulness, General Activity and Feeding Behavior in Chickens and Its Relationship with Digestive Efficiency

• Published in: Behavior genetics Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 114 - 124
• Main Authors: Mignon-Grasteau, Sandrine, Chantry-Darmon, Céline, Boscher, Marie-Yvonne, Sellier, Nadine, Le Bihan-Duval, Elisabeth, Bertin, Aline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2017; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animals; Behavior; Behavior, Animal; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Chickens - genetics; Clinical Psychology; Composition; Determinism; Diet; Digestion; Digestive tract; Experiments; Fear; Fear & phobias; Feeding; Feeding Behavior; Feeds; Genes; Genetic Association Studies; Genomes; Health Psychology; Immobilization; Inheritance Patterns - genetics; Life Sciences; Lying; Males; Microbiota; Open-field behavior; Original Research; Other; Parameters; Poultry; Psychology; Public Health; Quantitative trait loci; Quantitative Trait Loci - genetics; Quantitative Trait, Heritable; Reactivity; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Tonic immobility; France; QTL; Fear; Digestive efficiency; Heritability; Feeding behavior; Gallus gallus domesticus; digestive efficiency; chicken; paramètre génétique; comportement alimentaire; feeding behavior; comportement animal; qtl; dogestive efficiency; heritability; poulet; genêtic determinism; efficacité digestive; déterminisme génétique; food habits; genetic variance; gallus gallus domesticus; fear
• ISSN: 0001-8244; 1573-3297
• DOI: 10.1007/s10519-016-9807-1

The genetic relationships between behavior and digestive efficiency were studied in 860 chickens from a cross between two lines divergently selected on digestive efficiency. At 2 weeks of age each chick was video-recorded in the home pen to characterize general activity and feeding behavior. Tonic immobility and open-field tests were also carried out individually to evaluate emotional reactivity (i.e. the propensity to express fear responses). Digestive efficiency was measured at 3 weeks. Genetic parameters of behavior traits were estimated. Birds were genotyped on 3379 SNP markers to detect QTLs. Heritabilities of behavioral traits were low, apart from tonic immobility (0.17–0.18) and maximum meal length (0.14). The genetic correlations indicated that the most efficient birds fed more frequently and were less fearful. We detected 14 QTL (9 for feeding behavior, 3 for tonic immobility, 2 for frequency of lying). Nine of them co-localized with QTL for efficiency, anatomy of the digestive tract, feed intake or microbiota composition. Four genes involved in fear reactions were identified in the QTL for tonic immobility on GGA1.