A genetic factor that encourages this form of farmyard bullying has been identified.
Abstract
Feather-pecking in domestic birds is associated with cannibalism and severe welfare problems1. It is a dramatic example of a spiteful behaviour in which the victim's fitness is reduced for no immediate direct benefit to the perpetrator2 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 melanization3, 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.
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Keeling, L., Andersson, L., Schütz, K. et al. Feather-pecking and victim pigmentation. Nature 431, 645–646 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/431645a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/431645a
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