Chicken genomics: Feather-pecking and victim pigmentation.
In: Nature, Jg. 431 (2004-10-07), Heft 7009, S. 645-646
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Zugriff:
Feather-pecking in domestic birds is associated with cannibalism and severe welfare problems. It is a dramatic example of a spiteful behaviour in which the victim's fitness is reduced for no immediate direct benefit to the perpetrator and its evolution is unexplained. Here we show that the plumage pigmentation of a chicken may predispose it to become a victim: birds suffer more drastic feather-pecking when the colour of their plumage is due to the expression of a wild recessive allele at PMEL17, a gene that controls plumage melanization, and when these birds are relatively common in a flock. These findings, obtained using an intercross between a domestic fowl and its wild ancestor, have implications for the welfare of domestic species and offer insight into the genetic changes associated with the evolution of feather-pecking during the early stages of domestication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Chicken genomics: Feather-pecking and victim pigmentation.
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Keeling, Linda ; Andersson, Leif ; Schü, Karin E. ; Kerje, Susanne ; Fredriksson, Robert ; Carlborg, Ouml;rjan ; Cornwallis, Charles K. ; Pizzari, Tommaso ; Jensen, Per |
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Zeitschrift: | Nature, Jg. 431 (2004-10-07), Heft 7009, S. 645-646 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2004 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 (print) |
DOI: | 10.1038/431645a |
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