Corticosterone and fear behaviour in white and brown caged laying hens

Abstract

Physiological and behavioural measures of stress in caged hens on a commercial farm were compared between White Leghorn and brown Hyline strains, and between three tiers of cages. Blood and faecal samples were collected from undisturbed birds for corticosterone measurements. Plasma corticosterone responses to a stressor were measured by the collection of blood samples after 15, 30, and 60 min of a handling stressor. Tonic immobility and novel object tests were used to measure fear behaviour. Plasma corticosterone in undisturbed hens and faecal corticosterone did not differ between White Leghorn and brown Hyline hens, whereas the plasma corticosterone response to a handling stressor was greater in White Leghorns. The duration of tonic immobility, latency to first head movement and number of head movements in tonic immobility tests were greater in white than brown birds, whereas the number of inductions was less for tonic immobility tests. There were no differences between the strains in their responses to a novel object. There were no differences between tiers in plasma corticosterone or corticosterone responses or tonic immobility responses, and no consistent differences in responses of birds to a novel object. This is the first study in which plasma and faecal corticosterone concentrations and fear behaviour have been measured together in laying hens, and the first description of plasma corticosterone responses to handling over 60 min for caged laying hens on a commercial farm. The study has shown the value of measuring endocrine and behavioural variables together to provide objective data on characteristics of different strains of hens.

The Effect of Stocking Density and Strain on the Performance and Physiological Adaptive Responses in Broiler Chickens

“…닭에서 우수한 품종 및 적절한 사육 환경을 평가하는 방 법으로는 각종 스트레스 관련 생리적 지표들을 찾아 그 변화 를 분석하는 것으로 혈액 생화학 성분과 백혈구 변화 (Munck et al, 1984;Shini, 2003;Soleimani et al, 2011;Thaxton et al, 2006), corticosterone 수준(De Haas et al, 2013;Fraisse and Cockrem, 2006;Mack et al, 2013;Shini, 2003), 면역항 체 지표 (Kaiser et al, 2009;Singh et al, 2009) 및 행동학적 분석 (Uitdehaag et al, 2008) 등이 널리 이용되고 있다. 그러 나 닭에서 사육 밀도 증가에 따른 동물 복지에 관련된 다양 한 지표들을 조사하였지만, 많은 요인들의 상호작용 및 복 합성으로 이들 지표들의 일관성은 높지 않는 것으로 알려져 있다 (Thaxton et al, 2006).…”

Short-term voluntary exercise in the rat causes bone modeling without initiating a physiological stress response

“…The dried ethanol extracts were reconstituted in 1 ml of 0.1 M phosphatebuffered saline with 0.1% gelatin, pH 7.0 (PBSG), and the final supernatant was diluted in PBSG by a factor of two before freezing. The recovery of corticosterone following extraction was measured as previously described (22). The mean recovery of corticosterone from spiked control samples was 70.7 Ϯ 0.8% (n ϭ 15).…”

Comparison of Stress Response between Korean Native Chickens and Single Comb White Leghorns subjected to a High Stocking Density

“…일반적으로 선발 육종을 통 해 개량이 진행된 개체의 스트레스 반응 정도가 자연 상태 의 개체들에 비해 상대적으로 높은 것으로 알려지고 있다. 또한 백색 레그혼 계통과 유색계의 스트레스 저항성 비교에 서도 행동 습성에 따른 지표뿐만 아니라, 생리적 표지 물질 들의 분석에서 백색계가 유색계에 비해 스트레스 반응 정도 가 민감하다고 하였다 (Albentosa et al, 2003;Fraisse and Cockrem, 2006;Star et al, 2008a;Bolhuis et al, 2009;Uitdehaag et al, 2011;de Haas et al, 2013 …”