Mapping quantitative trait loci affecting fatness and breast muscle weight in meat-type chicken lines divergently selected on abdominal fatness

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for abdominal fatness and breast muscle weight were investigated in a three-generation design performed by inter-crossing two experimental meat-type chicken lines that were divergently selected on abdominal fatness. A total of 585 F2 male offspring from 5 F1 sires and 38 F1 dams were recorded at 8 weeks of age for live body, abdominal fat and breast muscle weights. One hundred-twenty nine microsatellite markers, evenly located throughout the genome and heterozygous for most of the F1 sires, were used for genotyping the F2 birds. In each sire family, those offspring exhibiting the most extreme values for each trait were genotyped. Multipoint QTL analyses using maximum likelihood methods were performed for abdominal fat and breast muscle weights, which were corrected for the effects of 8-week body weight, dam and hatching group. Isolated markers were assessed by analyses of variance. Two significant QTL were identified on chromosomes 1 and 5 with effects of about one within-family residual standard deviation. One breast muscle QTL was identified on GGA1 with an effect of 2.0 within-family residual standard deviation

WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING TO REFINE THE DETECTION OF QTL FOR VIRAL NERVOUS NECROSIS IN EUROPEAN SEA BASS (DICENTRARCHUS LABRAX)

International audienc

Mapping quantitative trait loci affecting fatness and breast muscle weight in meat-type chicken lines divergently selected on abdominal fatness

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for abdominal fatness and breast muscle weight were investigated in a three-generation design performed by inter-crossing two experimental meat-type chicken lines that were divergently selected on abdominal fatness. A total of 585 F₂male offspring from 5 F₁sires and 38 F₁dams were recorded at 8 weeks of age for live body, abdominal fat and breast muscle weights. One hundred-twenty nine microsatellite markers, evenly located throughout the genome and heterozygous for most of the F₁sires, were used for genotyping the F₂birds. In each sire family, those offspring exhibiting the most extreme values for each trait were genotyped. Multipoint QTL analyses using maximum likelihood methods were performed for abdominal fat and breast muscle weights, which were corrected for the effects of 8-week body weight, dam and hatching group. Isolated markers were assessed by analyses of variance. Two significant QTL were identified on chromosomes 1 and 5 with effects of about one within-family residual standard deviation. One breast muscle QTL was identified on GGA1 with an effect of 2.0 within-family residual standard deviation.</p

Welfare barriers and levers for improvement in organic and low-input outdoor pig and poultry production systems

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. Its first step was to sum up animal welfare challenges observed in these systems and levers of improvement, from a review of literature data and research projects. Data were completed with information from key informants of the supply chains of poultry meat, eggs and pork in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Finland. The interviews indicated that the main issues in poultry were: feeding, biosecurity, lack of range use and range management, feather pecking, weather, regulation, flock size or density, predation, bone fractures, lack of robustness, parasitism, pododermatitis, arthrosis, nervousness, water quality, catching and time spent by farmers. The main issues in pig were: feeding, tail biting, mortality, weather, predation, lack of robustness, lack of range use, castration, animal aggressiveness and competition, water quality, range management, human welfare, biosecurity issues, flock size or density, parasitism, insolation burns, joint abnormalities, parturition in freedom and pollution. This information has implemented a participatory approach for proposing welfare-improvement levers. Some issues and potential solutions were included in PPILOW experiments (phytotherapy against parasitism, involvement of animal personality in range use, rearing of entire pig males, genetic selection for reduced piglet mortality, improved farrowing huts for sows and piglets reared on range, avoiding feather pecking in laying hens with intact beaks, avoiding the killing of day-old male chicks etc.), and solution costs evaluated. The results will provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement in Europe. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172

Welfare barriers and levers for improvement in organic and low-input outdoor pig and poultry production systems

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. Its first step was to sum up animal welfare challenges observed in these systems and levers of improvement, from a review of literature data and research projects. Data were completed with information from key informants of the supply chains of poultry meat, eggs and pork in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Finland. The interviews indicated that the main issues in poultry were: feeding, biosecurity, lack of range use and range management, feather pecking, weather, regulation, flock size or density, predation, bone fractures, lack of robustness, parasitism, pododermatitis, arthrosis, nervousness, water quality, catching and time spent by farmers. The main issues in pig were: feeding, tail biting, mortality, weather, predation, lack of robustness, lack of range use, castration, animal aggressiveness and competition, water quality, range management, human welfare, biosecurity issues, flock size or density, parasitism, insolation burns, joint abnormalities, parturition in freedom and pollution. This information has implemented a participatory approach for proposing welfare-improvement levers. Some issues and potential solutions were included in PPILOW experiments (phytotherapy against parasitism, involvement of animal personality in range use, rearing of entire pig males, genetic selection for reduced piglet mortality, improved farrowing huts for sows and piglets reared on range, avoiding feather pecking in laying hens with intact beaks, avoiding the killing of day-old male chicks etc.), and solution costs evaluated. The results will provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement in Europe. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172

Welfare barriers and levers for improvement in organic and low-input outdoor pig and poultry production systems

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. Its first step was to sum up animal welfare challenges observed in these systems and levers of improvement, from a review of literature data and research projects. Data were completed with information from key informants of the supply chains of poultry meat, eggs and pork in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Finland. The interviews indicated that the main issues in poultry were: feeding, biosecurity, lack of range use and range management, feather pecking, weather, regulation, flock size or density, predation, bone fractures, lack of robustness, parasitism, pododermatitis, arthrosis, nervousness, water quality, catching and time spent by farmers. The main issues in pig were: feeding, tail biting, mortality, weather, predation, lack of robustness, lack of range use, castration, animal aggressiveness and competition, water quality, range management, human welfare, biosecurity issues, flock size or density, parasitism, insolation burns, joint abnormalities, parturition in freedom and pollution. This information has implemented a participatory approach for proposing welfare-improvement levers. Some issues and potential solutions were included in PPILOW experiments (phytotherapy against parasitism, involvement of animal personality in range use, rearing of entire pig males, genetic selection for reduced piglet mortality, improved farrowing huts for sows and piglets reared on range, avoiding feather pecking in laying hens with intact beaks, avoiding the killing of day-old male chicks etc.), and solution costs evaluated. The results will provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement in Europe. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172

The PPILOW project: Innovations improving welfare in low input and organic pig and poultry farms

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. PPILOW implements a participatory approach for proposing and studying welfare-improvement levers. It will provide a combination of practical solutions that can be applied at a pan-European level with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market. The multi-actor approach consists in involving end-users including farmers, breeding companies, feed producers, consumer associations, retailers, advisers, processors, and scientists in National Practitioner Groups (NPG) in six participating countries. PPILOW partners facilitate the groups by connecting NPG at European level, transferring scientific information, interacting with partners engaged in animal experiments, and co-creating innovations rising from NPG-specific demands. They co-build with PPILOW partners welfare self-assessment tools (development of the PIGLOW app for pigs and refinement of the EBENE® app for poultry), and innovative breeding, feeding, and rearing strategies and techniques to improve the welfare of animals. They co-design protocols, test innovations on farm, and disseminate the results. In turn, they receive insights on methods and scientific results, and inputs from other NPG reinforcing the value of the expected outcomes. Approaches focus on avoiding physical damage and the elimination of layer male chicks, on reducing boar taint of intact male pigs, promoting positive behaviours, animal health, and robustness through field studies with pigs and poultry. Multicriteria analyses of the most effective levers of welfare improvement will be performed to evaluate their economic, social, and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept; economic and business models will also be developed. To ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, the close involvement of PPILOW’s NPG throughout the EU will ensure disseminationactivities and the facilitation of change. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172. www.ppilow.eu

The PPILOW project: Innovations improving welfare in low input and organic pig and poultry farms

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. PPILOW implements a participatory approach for proposing and studying welfare-improvement levers. It will provide a combination of practical solutions that can be applied at a pan-European level with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market. The multi-actor approach consists in involving end-users including farmers, breeding companies, feed producers, consumer associations, retailers, advisers, processors, and scientists in National Practitioner Groups (NPG) in six participating countries. PPILOW partners facilitate the groups by connecting NPG at European level, transferring scientific information, interacting with partners engaged in animal experiments, and co-creating innovations rising from NPG-specific demands. They co-build with PPILOW partners welfare self-assessment tools (development of the PIGLOW app for pigs and refinement of the EBENE® app for poultry), and innovative breeding, feeding, and rearing strategies and techniques to improve the welfare of animals. They co-design protocols, test innovations on farm, and disseminate the results. In turn, they receive insights on methods and scientific results, and inputs from other NPG reinforcing the value of the expected outcomes. Approaches focus on avoiding physical damage and the elimination of layer male chicks, on reducing boar taint of intact male pigs, promoting positive behaviours, animal health, and robustness through field studies with pigs and poultry. Multicriteria analyses of the most effective levers of welfare improvement will be performed to evaluate their economic, social, and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept; economic and business models will also be developed. To ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, the close involvement of PPILOW’s NPG throughout the EU will ensure disseminationactivities and the facilitation of change. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172. www.ppilow.eu

PPILOW: innovations for improving animal welfare and human well-being in low-input outdoor and organic poultry and pig production systems

International audienc

The PPILOW project: Innovations improving welfare in low input and organic pig and poultry farms

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. PPILOW implements a participatory approach for proposing and studying welfare-improvement levers. It will provide a combination of practical solutions that can be applied at a pan-European level with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market. The multi-actor approach consists in involving end-users including farmers, breeding companies, feed producers, consumer associations, retailers, advisers, processors, and scientists in National Practitioner Groups (NPG) in six participating countries. PPILOW partners facilitate the groups by connecting NPG at European level, transferring scientific information, interacting with partners engaged in animal experiments, and co-creating innovations rising from NPG-specific demands. They co-build with PPILOW partners welfare self-assessment tools (development of the PIGLOW app for pigs and refinement of the EBENE® app for poultry), and innovative breeding, feeding, and rearing strategies and techniques to improve the welfare of animals. They co-design protocols, test innovations on farm, and disseminate the results. In turn, they receive insights on methods and scientific results, and inputs from other NPG reinforcing the value of the expected outcomes. Approaches focus on avoiding physical damage and the elimination of layer male chicks, on reducing boar taint of intact male pigs, promoting positive behaviours, animal health, and robustness through field studies with pigs and poultry. Multicriteria analyses of the most effective levers of welfare improvement will be performed to evaluate their economic, social, and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept; economic and business models will also be developed. To ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, the close involvement of PPILOW’s NPG throughout the EU will ensure disseminationactivities and the facilitation of change. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172. www.ppilow.eu