Early experiences matter: a review of the effects of prenatal environment on offspring characteristics in poultry

Abstract

Early life experiences can be important in determining offspring phenotypes and may influence interaction with the environment and hence health, welfare, and productivity. The prenatal environment of poultry can be divided into the pre-lay environment and the egg storage/incubation environment, both of which can affect offspring outcomes. The ability to separate maternal and egg/incubation effects makes birds well suited to this type of research. There are many factors, including feeding and nutrition, environmental conditions, husbandry practices, housing system, social environment, infectious environment, and maternal health status, that can influence both the health and performance and behavior and cognition of the offspring. There are some aspects of the environments that can be changed to produce beneficial effects in the offspring, like addition of certain additives to feed or short changes in incubation temperatures, while other aspects should be avoided to reduce negative effects, such as unpredictable feeding and lighting regimens. Measures of offspring characteristics may prove to be a useful method of assessing parent stock welfare if known stressors result in predictable offspring outcomes. This has the advantage of assessing the parent environment without interfering with the animals and possibly affecting their responses and could lead to improved welfare for the animals.

Effects of Maternal Stress on Measures of Anxiety and Fearfulness in Different Strains of Laying Hens

“…Its effects are highly dependent on the intensity, timing of exposure, and type of stressor experienced by the mother (4)(5)(6). More specifically, impacts on offspring behavior are evident across taxa [avian (7); mammals (1,8); reptiles (9)], and at the neurological scale, maternal stress has been linked to structural and functional changes in the limbic system and prefrontal cortex of rats (1), and to changes in gene expression in the hypothalamus of chickens (10). These brain areas are involved in the mediation of fear and anxiety, social and cognitive processes, and working memory of mammals and birds (11,12).…”

Plasma Farming: Non-Thermal Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Technology for Improving the Growth of Soybean Sprouts and Chickens

“…Hens primarily determine the development of offspring embryos and the postnatal growth [87]. At the same time, the weight of a fertilized chicken egg affects the hatch and growth of their offspring, and this maternal environment can influence the growth characteristics of their progeny lastingly [88]. Although offspring of plasma-treated parents fail to inherit excellent growth properties, non-thermal DBD plasma direct-treated generation suggests a potentially viable and valuable strategy to improve the chicken growth rate in the poultry industry.…”

Acute stressors experienced by layer breeders do not affect measures of stress and fear in their offspring

“…The effects of maternal stress in the offspring of birds and mammals are highly dependent on the intensity, timing of exposure and type of stressor experienced by the mother (5–7). Maternal stress can impact offspring’s physiology, behaviour and cognition (6,8) through structural and functional changes in brain areas involved in the mediation of fear and anxiety (9), as well as through changes in gene expression (10). We have previously shown that chicks from a commercial line of layer breeders that were subjected to daily sessions of psychological stressors during egg production showed a decreased occurrence of anxiety-like behaviour (measured in the total number of distress calls expressed during social isolation) compared to a control group (11).…”