Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, Dörnbergstrasse 25-27, D-29223 Celle, Germany.
Genes Brain Behav. 2011 Oct;10(7):747-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00713.x. Epub 2011 Jul 12.
Domestic chicken lines of the White Leghorn type differing in their level of feather pecking were developed by divergent genetic selection specifically on feather pecking behavior. We determined parameters of heart rate variability to elucidate the relative activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems during rest and stressful situations. A total of 48 hens were tested in 8 batches. Segments of 2 min were extracted from electrocardiograms recorded by radio-transmitter implants, before (basal undisturbed conditions) and during physical restraint and a social test. Under basal conditions mean distance between R-waves were shorter in the low and high lines compared to the control. During physical restraint, stress reactions [reduced root of the mean squares of successive differences (RMSSD), reduced high frequency (HF), high low frequency (LF/HF) and low vagal-sympathetic effect (VSE) compared to basal levels] were significant in all lines. During the physical restraint the high feather pecking (HFP) line reacted significantly stronger than control (CON) and low feather pecking (LFP) line. During social test the LFP line reacted different than the other two lines. Seemingly birds from LFP conceived the social test as less stressful than birds from the CON and HFP lines. From this it follows that (1) physical restraint generally induced higher stress reactions than the social test and (2) genetic selection for higher levels of feather pecking increased the autonomic nervous system reaction to physical restraint whereas selection against feather pecking has reduced the response to increased social contact.
为了专门针对啄羽行为进行分歧性遗传选择，开发出了具有不同啄羽水平的白来航鸡家系。我们确定了心率变异性的参数，以阐明在休息和紧张情况下交感和副交感神经系统的相对激活情况。总共对 48 只母鸡进行了 8 组测试。从通过无线电发射器植入记录的心电图中提取了 2 分钟的片段，在（基础无干扰条件）和物理束缚以及社会测试期间。在基础条件下，与对照组相比，低线和高线之间的 R 波之间的平均距离较短。在物理束缚期间，与基础水平相比，所有线的压力反应[降低均方根差的根（RMSSD），降低高频（HF），高低频（LF / HF）和低迷走神经效应（VSE）]均显著。在物理束缚期间，高啄羽（HFP）线的反应明显强于对照（CON）和低啄羽（LFP）线。在社交测试中，LFP 线的反应与其他两条线不同。似乎 LFP 线的鸟类将社交测试视为比 CON 和 HFP 线的鸟类的压力小。由此可以得出结论：（1）物理束缚通常比社交测试引起更高的应激反应；（2）对啄羽水平较高的遗传选择增加了对物理束缚的自主神经系统反应，而对啄羽的选择减少了对增加的社交接触的反应。
