Effect of broody hens on behaviour of chicks

Shimmura, Tsuyoshi; Kamimura, Eriko; Azuma, T; Kansaku, Norio; Uetake, Katsuji; Tanaka, Toshio

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2010.06.011

Cited by 45 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Although previous reports have shown differences between mothered and non-mothered precocial birds, these reports assessed their behavior only during the first weeks after hatching and no conclusions could be drawn concerning the long-term influences of this early experience De Margerie et al, 2012;Formanek et al, 2009;Perré et al, 2002;Roden & Wechsler, 1998;Shimmura et al, 2010). Although previous reports have shown differences between mothered and non-mothered precocial birds, these reports assessed their behavior only during the first weeks after hatching and no conclusions could be drawn concerning the long-term influences of this early experience De Margerie et al, 2012;Formanek et al, 2009;Perré et al, 2002;Roden & Wechsler, 1998;Shimmura et al, 2010).…”

Section: Effects Of Maternal Deprivation On Adult Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Pittet

Bot

Houdelier

et al. 2013

Developmental Psychobiology

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Early maternal deprivation impairs the behavioral development of young individuals. Recently, strong differences between mothered and maternally deprived chicks have been reported concerning their emotionality, sociality, and spatial skills. Here we investigated long-term and cross-generational impacts of maternal deprivation by comparing the characteristics of the non-reproductive and the maternal behavior of 22 mothered and 22 non-mothered adult female Japanese quail (Coturnix c. japonica) and by comparing the behavior of their respective fostered chicks. We reveal that non-brooded mothers were more fearful and less competent in spatial tasks and expressed impaired maternal care, characterized by more aggression towards chicks, higher activity rates, and more abnormal pacing during the first days of the care period. Chicks' behavior was clearly affected by maternal care inducing strong differences in their fearfulness and social motivation. Our results show both long-term and cross-generational impacts of early maternal deprivation in precocial birds.

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Section: Effects Of Maternal Deprivation On Adult Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Pittet

Bot

Houdelier

et al. 2013

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…Precocial birds, particularly gallinaceans, are choice models for investigating genetic (Agnvall et al, ), epigenetic (Goerlich et al, ), prenatal (Guibert et al, ), and postnatal (Shimmura et al, ; Pittet et al, ) components of behavioral ontogeny. The increasing interest for these species' behavioral development requires information concerning the ontogeny of sex differences.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

2014

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Compared to mammals and altricial birds, evaluations of differences related to precocial birds' sex have often been limited to sexual behavior. Nevertheless, the extensive use of precocial bird models for investigating behavioral development issues requires in depth knowledge concerning the emergence of sex differences. Here, we evaluated behavioral differences between Japanese quail chicks in relation to their sex. We know that maternal influences are strong and early social environment shapes behavioral development in this species. Therefore, we investigated the emergence of sex differences in two very different early social situations to evaluate the impact of precocial bird mothers on sex differences. We assessed behavioral differences related to sex of (1) non-brooded chicks and of (2) brooded chicks, using various ethological tests to evaluate emotional reactivity and social motivation differences related to sex. Our results show that both non-brooded and brooded chicks present behavioral differences related to sex. They differed greatly according to chicks' early experience. Sex-related differences between maternally deprived (non-brooded) chicks concerned mainly fearfulness, whereas differences between male and female brooded chicks concerned mainly their reactions to social isolation. We hypothesize that mothers attenuate sex differences related to fearfulness by being a model for responses to fear-eliciting situations and by providing a similar secure basis to both males and females. We finally propose that mothers induce differences in chicks' sociality by providing asymmetrical care toward males and females.

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“…Brooded chicks also show higher social motivation, seen both in chickens (Perré et al, 2002) and in Japanese quail (Bertin and Richard-Yris, 2005). Further, chicks reared with hens are less fearful (Shimmura et al, 2010) and display less neophobia (Perré et al, 2002). In Japanese quail, chicks raised by human-habituated mothers in turn displayed decreased fearfulness towards static and moving humans (Bertin and Richard-Yris, 2004).…”

Section: Postnatal Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

Ericsson¹

2016

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The domestication is the process where animals have adapted to human conditions. A prerequisite for domestication is tame behaviour towards humans and subsequently, selection for other desirable traits took place which led to changes in several behavioural and physiological parameters. The domestication of chickens (Gallus gallus) was initiated around 8000 years ago, and today we see clear phenotypic and genotypic alterations when comparing domestic breeds with the wild ancestor. Our modern domestic production breeds have been selected for, and still undergo heavy selection for high meat and egg yields. Beside obvious morphological changes, studies investigating behavioural differences between the ancestral Red Junglefowl and domestic breeds show, for example, differences in fearfulness, foraging strategies, exploratory behaviour and sociality. The modern production environments are intense and already from hatch chicks are exposed to harsh conditions. From an animal welfare perspective, the production environment contain many stressful aspects. The shift in stressor types between wild and captive conditions have likely contributed to alterations in stress tolerance when comparing domestic breeds to the wild ancestors. Previous research on mammalian models have underlined that early-life stressor exposure can induce negative consequences both immediately and in adulthood, but can also affect the offspring in a transgenerational fashion. The effects observed are for example disturbance of normal brain development, a hyper-reactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) -axis, decreased immune function and increased risk of developing cognitive dysfunction and abnormal behaviour. In chickens, the long-term effects of stress during the chick phase and during puberty are not well-investigated, and further, conflicting data has been presented on the hatchling HPA-axis reactivity.In this thesis, results from four projects are presented, which all concern stress and welfare at different ages in chickens. The development of the HPA-axis and how chicks respond to early stress both on the short-and long term was investigated. Furthermore, an experiment on the effects of stress exposure a different ages during puberty was conducted, in search of particularly stress-sensitive periods. Two papers address domestication effects on the stress response.In paper I, the results show that the HPA-axis is fully functioning at hatch, resulting in elevated corticosterone levels at exposure to stressful conditions. Breed differences indicate domestication effects on the reactivity and development of the HPA-axis; the Red Junglefowl displayed a lower corticosterone baseline and a lower stress response on day one, compared to a domestic breed, whereas the results were the opposite on day 23. Similar results were seen in paper IV, conducted on adult birds, where the Red Junglefowl had a more pronounced reaction to acute stress but a faster recovery period, both with respect to behaviour and physiology. In commercial hatcheries, chic...

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Effect of broody hens on behaviour of chicks

Cited by 45 publications

References 41 publications

Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

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