Perinatal effects on feather pecking in laying hens

Elske de Haas

Behavioural Ecology Group & Adaptation Physiology Group

Included contributions from the members of the prenatal COST review paper

Jo Edgar, Joergen Kjaer, Inma Estevez, Anja Riber, Andrew Janczak, Ivan

Dimitrov, Bas Rodenburg, Valentina Ferrante, Sezen Ozkan

GroupHousenet

COST Action Training School

Bilbao, Spain, November 2017

Overview

What is the perinatal period

● Prenatal – maternal effects + incubation

● Postnatal – early life rearing

How and why prenatal effects could play a role in feather

pecking

Epigenetic modulators

● Maternally derived yolk hormones

● DNA–methylation

● Gene-expression influence on behaviour

Transgenerational effects

Incubation: light, noise, temperature and olfactory cues

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Perinatal period

Prenatal period: at conception up to hatch

Postnatal period: immediately after hatch

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ScienceAlert Filipe Vanecio

Prenatal and postnatal period

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Synapse

formation Myelination

fine tuning circuits

Critical period in development of SFP?

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Critical period? Huber-Eicher and Sebo, 2001

Studies Jerine van der Eijk feather pecking lines

Prenatal -

mammal

6

Lupu et al., 2012 Aging and Disease “Long term” exposure to maternal hormones, toxins, nutrients, environmental insults etc..

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Li et al., 2012 Prog Neurobiol.

Envi

ron

men

tal f

acto

rs

Feather pecking = abnormal “excessive”

pecking behaviour (Rodenburg et al., 2013)

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Li et al., 2012 Prog Neurobiol.

Feather pecking =

• Coping with stressors

• Altered serotonergic and dopaminergic

functioning

(van Hierden et al., 2002; 2004; Kops et al., 2013;

2014)

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At hatch: 3000-4000 follicles Only one ovary (60-80cm oviduct) Starts at yolk formation: takes 7 -10 days Development of the egg: 24-28 hours Rotating yolk Egg contains: approximate 13% protein, 11% fat, minerals (iron), vitamin A B and D, H2O, cholesterol Yolk is mostly unsaturated fat

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“Short term” exposure to maternal hormones, toxins, nutrients, environmental insults etc..

12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PedajVADLGw

Chicken Embryo Development

Conditions in the egg can influence offspring

development

Yolk mass – nutrients – yolk hormones

Yolk hormones in the egg

● Testosterone, androstenedione, oestrogens

● Progesterone

● Corticosterone? Rettenbacher et al., 2012

- Cross-reaction with P in RIA

- Not biologically relevant levels

- Validation with HPLC for assessing variation, biological range when injecting hormones

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Yolk hormones

To “adapt” offspring to future environment/within clutch competition

Small eggs within a clutch more testosterone (Groothuis et al., 2002)

Influence behaviour profile of offspring

● Testosterone: competitive phenotype

● Oestrogens: postulated as a epigenetic modulator

(Natt et al., 200)

Influenced by various maternal environmental conditions...

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Effects of environment on yolk hormones

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Environment Effect Species Reference

Low maternal status Higher yolk T Chicken Muller et al., 2002

Cage housing vs floor housing

Higher yolk E Chicken Janczak et al., 2009

Unpredictable stressors

Higher yolk T Japanese Quail

Guibert et al., 2011

Group size Higher yolk T Smooth billed ani

Schmaltz et al., 2008

Social stress Higher yolk T Collared flycatcher

Hargitai et al., 2009

Sexual partner Higher yolk T Great tit Remes et al., 2011

Diet Higher yolk T Zebra finch Rutstein et al., 2004

Carotenoid supplementation

Higher yolk T Japanese Quail

Peluc et al., 2012

Effects of environment of maternal environment on offspring

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Environment Effect yolk hormones Behaviour/ physiology

Species Reference

Early life stress Higher yolk T Higher egg weight

Higher coping ability in stressful situations

Chicken Goerlich et al., 2012

Unpredictable food

No effect on yolk No effect on BW or EW

TI Chicken Janczak et al., 2007

Lipids in diet Higher fecal cort Higher yolk T, P and E

Fearfulness Chicken De Haas et al., 2017

Heat stress Higher T Growth and fearfulness

Chicken Bertin et al., 2013

Exp higher CORT Lower yolk T, E Lighter eggs, small chicks

Competition less fearful, lower IC higher T blood

Chicken Henriksen et al., 2013

Unpredictable light

Higher yolk E Methylation DEG

Food choice Chicken Lindqvist et al., 2007, Natt et al., 2009

Unpredictable housing

Higher yolk T Higher egg weight Higher BW chicks

Anxiety Quail Guibert et al., 2012

Transgenerational effects

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Pedigree elite stock

Grand-grand parent stock

Grand parent stock

Parent stock

Rearing flock + laying flock

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Epigenetic markers

“genetic mutations in epigenetic genes cause dysfunctions that

lead to certain neurodevelopmental disorders” (Portela and

Estellar., 2016)

Gene-sequence not affected but expression is

DNA methylation, demetylation, acetylation, histone

modification and nucleosome positioning

19 Sayyed K. Zaidi et al. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2010;30:4758-4766

DNA methylation in chickens

DNA-methylation and parental conditions

Rearing conditions – Red blood cell DNA methylation (Pertille et

al., 2017 Journal of Exp. Biol)

DNA methylation + gene-expression studies

Selected versus Red Jungle Fowl – Thalamus methylation (Nätt

et al., 2012)

Selected high and low fear (Bélteky 2017, Bélteky et al., 2016)

Parental stress + gene-expression + behaviour studies

First week of life social isolation (Goerlich et al., 2012)

Stress at 2, 8 or 17 weeks of age - differential eff on beh. &

physiology (Ericson et al., 2016)

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How do these studies translate to on-farm conditions in relation to feather pecking?

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Longitudinal study on rearing flocks up to laying flock

Prenatal effects + early life environment + later life conditions

20 Parent stock flocks (10 white, 10 brown)

47 rearing flock (per parent stock 4 to 5 rearing flocks followed)

35 laying flocks

Higher basal maternal corticosterone with lower average egg

weight on flock level

De Haas et al., 2013 Poultry Science

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Physiology and feather damage mothers on early life FP

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De Haas et al., 2014 PLOS 1

Variation in yolk testosterone between farms bigger

than within farms

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Yolk androgens and maternal physiology

Only 8 sample points of 2 hybrids

No indication that androstenedione was related to CORT or 5-HT

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Egg parameters and feather pecking

Caution! Likely overestimation

But potential direction of research – that egg condition may

play a role in feather pecking in offspring

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Severe feather pecking at one week of age (pecks/20min)

Early life effects “prenatal”

Genotype * maternal effect?

● Only in white layer flocks “maternal effect” were recorded

Genotype * early life environment?

● In brown layer flocks early life environment appears more important

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De Haas et al., 2014 Plos 1

Early life conditions

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Consequences on feather pecking

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De Haas et al., 2014 Plos 1

De Haas et al., 2014 AABS

Higher odds ratio of feather damage at lay

when housed on wire

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Tahamtani et al., 2016 Poultry Science

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Prenatal incubation effects

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Natural incubation

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Sound

Hen vocalizations

Internal vocalizations siblings

External vocalizations siblings

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Light

Light pulses – hen leaves/turns egg

Light entering via egg shell

Natural light or relative dark

Right eye exposed

Temperature

Body temperature of hen

Leaving eggs at end of incubation

Smell

Pheromones of hen

Smell of feaces

Smell of nest

Chemosensory learning?

Development of systems during incubation

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Auditory system matures at E12 Thermal regulation system matures at E15 Visual system matures at E17 Olfactory discrimination at E20

Light – post hatch effects Light vs. dark

● 12L:12D vs. dark: less stress, better immunity (Archer and Mench, 2013; Özkan et al.2013)

● 16L:8D vs. dark: higher GFP, SFP, preening first weeks of life more dustbathing, higher growth and feed efficiency reduced fearfulness (Dayıoğlu and Özkan, 2012)

Lateralization: stimulated asymmetry (Rogers, 1995; 2010; 2013)

Right eye & left hemisphere - discrimination, food-searching, recognition Left eye & right hemisphere - stress, fear, avoidance and aggression

● Light @ incubation foraging efficiency: Pecking accuracy, food discrimination (Rogers et al, 2007) Improved discriminative memory (Sui and Rose, 1997) Reduced fearfulness (Archer & Mench, 2017)

Type of light matters Green light reduces SFP : Miray’s talk (Dayıoğlu and Özkan 2017 & Özkan et al, 2016)

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Auditory system

Sound during incubation:

● Music: reduces cognitive ability early life sound cues (Kauser et al.,

2011; Chaudhury et al., 2010)

● Species specific sounds: increased postnatal social preferences (Roy et

al., 2014) decreased plasma corticosterone (Kauser et al., 2011)

● Noise 100db: Pessimistic bias later life (Rodenburg et al., 2017)

● Noise 70db: increased level of plasma noradrenalin (Sanyal et al.,

2013)

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Temperature effects

Post hatch effects: increase in Temp

● To 40.6 °C for 24h on E16: higher adrenal weight, NS CORT (Lay and Wilson, 2002) ● To 39.5 °C E7-E16 for 24h or 12h/d

– higher CORT @ hatch (Piestun et al., 2009) – lower CORT post thermal stress at later life (Piestun et al., 2008)

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Post hatch effects: decrease in Temp

● To 19°C for 3h on E16-E18: lower fearfulness (Bertin et al., in prep)

Olfactory cues

Strawberry – E15-E18:

● ingestion of flavoured food and water post hatch (Sneddon et al., 1995)

Orange flavour E13-E16 & E17-E20

● preference for odorized food (Bertin et al., 2012)

Fish oil - E15-E18

● Less neophobic for familiar flavour (Aigepense et al., 2012)

Natural odours E20 – 18h post hatch (faeces, moist food)

● Less pecking aversive smelling bead (Burne & Rogers, 1996)

● Low or high % elicited preference and aversive reactions (Bertin et

al., 2010)

● Concentrations higher than 30% as aversive (Burne & Rogers, 1996)

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Conclusions

Environmental insults imposed on maternal birds

● Affect physiology mother, hormones egg, egg mass, behaviour offspring, DNA-methylation, gene-expression

Indications that prenatal effects via maternal hormonal changes affect feather pecking

● Via egg weight?

● Via egg hormones?

● Methylation + gene-expression (STSM - LiU)

Incubation conditions

● Influence behaviour of offspring

● Feeding, discrimination, social behaviour, stress – indirectly affect SFP

● So far, only light source influences SFP directly

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43 endehaas@gmail.com

There are indications that prenatal factors could influence the risk for the development of damaging feather pecking in laying hens, but further research is needed to elucidate the exact mechanisms