TY - JOUR
T1 - Genetics of rearing success in four pure laying hen lines during the first 17 weeks of age
AU - Bouba, I.
AU - van den Brand, H.
AU - Kemp, B.
AU - Rodenburg, T. Bas
AU - Visser, B.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is part of the “Chicken Stress European Training Network” project, financed by the European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, which are gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Hendrix Genetics for providing the data, Carmen Noordijk for explaining the data, Katrijn Peeters and Bruno Perez for their valuable suggestions over calculating heritabilities.Disclaimer: This work reflects only the author's view. The Agency European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (grant number 812777 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - This study aimed to investigate the genetics of rearing success (RS) in laying hens. Four rearing traits: clutch size (CS), first week mortality (FWM), rearing abnormalities (RA), and natural death (ND), were included as factors determining RS. Pedigree, genotypic, and phenotypic records of 4 purebred genetic lines of White Leghorn layers were available for 23,000 rearing batches obtained between 2010 and 2020. FWM and ND showed little or no variation amongst the 4 genetic lines over the years 2010-2020, whereas an increase was observed for CS and a decrease for RA. To determine whether these traits were heritable, genetic parameters for each trait were estimated, using a Linear Mixed Model. Heritabilities within lines were low (0.05-0.19 for CS, 0.01-0.04 for FWM, 0.02-0.06 for RA, 0.02 -0.04 for ND, and 0.01-0.07 for RS). Additionally, genome wide association study was done to scan the genomes of the breeders to reveal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with these traits. Manhattan plots indicated the existence of 12 differ-ent SNPs having a significant effect on RS. Thus, the identified SNPs will increase the understanding of the genetics of RS in laying hens.
AB - This study aimed to investigate the genetics of rearing success (RS) in laying hens. Four rearing traits: clutch size (CS), first week mortality (FWM), rearing abnormalities (RA), and natural death (ND), were included as factors determining RS. Pedigree, genotypic, and phenotypic records of 4 purebred genetic lines of White Leghorn layers were available for 23,000 rearing batches obtained between 2010 and 2020. FWM and ND showed little or no variation amongst the 4 genetic lines over the years 2010-2020, whereas an increase was observed for CS and a decrease for RA. To determine whether these traits were heritable, genetic parameters for each trait were estimated, using a Linear Mixed Model. Heritabilities within lines were low (0.05-0.19 for CS, 0.01-0.04 for FWM, 0.02-0.06 for RA, 0.02 -0.04 for ND, and 0.01-0.07 for RS). Additionally, genome wide association study was done to scan the genomes of the breeders to reveal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with these traits. Manhattan plots indicated the existence of 12 differ-ent SNPs having a significant effect on RS. Thus, the identified SNPs will increase the understanding of the genetics of RS in laying hens.
KW - SNP
KW - first week mortality
KW - heritability
KW - layer breeder
KW - rearing success
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149869448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102576
DO - 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102576
M3 - Article
C2 - 36913755
SN - 0032-5791
VL - 102
JO - Poultry Science
JF - Poultry Science
IS - 5
M1 - 102576
ER -