BOA, INRA, Université de Tours, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
BOA, INRA, Université de Tours, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
Poult Sci. 2020 Feb;99(2):702-707. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2019.10.005. Epub 2019 Dec 6.
Improving the digestive efficiency of birds is becoming increasingly important with the diversification of feedstuffs used in poultry diets. Compared with time-consuming chemical analyses that were previously used to measure digestive efficiency, near-infrared spectroscopy has been a great advance as it was fast and thus allowed measurements to be taken from a large number of animals, as required for genetic studies. However, it still implies to rear the birds in cages to collect feces, which is questionable in terms of welfare. The purpose of this study was thus to establish whether the serum color could be used as a biomarker of digestive efficiency that would be easy and fast to measure on floor-reared animals. We first compared the serum color of 2 lines of chickens divergently selected for high or low digestive efficiency when fed with a wheat-based diet. Digestive efficiency was assessed by nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy. Color was assessed by the absorbance of the serum between 300 and 572 nm. Color differed between the 2 lines between 430 and 572 nm, which corresponds to the absorption zone of carotenoids such as lutein and zeaxanthin. In a second step, we estimated the heritability of serum color measurements and their genetic correlations with digestive efficiency. Taking these parameters into account, in our experimental conditions the best trait among those tested that can be used as a biomarker of digestive efficiency is serum absorbance at 492 nm, with a heritability estimate of 0.31 ± 0.09 and a genetic correlation with digestive efficiency of 0.84 ± 0.28.
随着家禽饲料中饲料种类的多样化，提高鸟类的消化效率变得越来越重要。与以前用于测量消化效率的耗时化学分析相比，近红外光谱技术是一个重大进展，因为它速度快，因此可以根据遗传研究的需要，对大量动物进行测量。然而，它仍然需要在笼子里饲养鸟类来收集粪便，这在福利方面是有问题的。因此，本研究的目的是确定血清颜色是否可以作为一种易于快速测量的消化效率生物标志物，用于在地面饲养的动物。我们首先比较了在以小麦为基础的饮食中具有高或低消化效率的两个鸡系的血清颜色。消化效率通过氮校正表观代谢能进行评估。颜色通过血清在 300 和 572nm 之间的吸光度进行评估。两条线之间的颜色在 430 和 572nm 之间存在差异，这对应于叶黄素和玉米黄质等类胡萝卜素的吸收区域。在第二步中，我们估计了血清颜色测量的遗传力及其与消化效率的遗传相关性。考虑到这些参数，在我们的实验条件下，作为消化效率生物标志物的最佳性状是 492nm 处的血清吸光度，遗传力估计值为 0.31±0.09，与消化效率的遗传相关性为 0.84±0.28。
