The formation of skin appendages represents a morphogenetic process through which a homogeneous system is converted into a patterned system. We have pursued molecules involved in the early placode induction and mesenchymal condensation stages of this process. We found that intracellular and extracellular signaling molecules collaborate to position the location of feather primordia and initiate ...

Feathers, unlike other cutaneous appendages such as hair, fur, or scales have a definite structure. Variation in feather structure creates a wide range of resulting appearances. Collectively, feather structure determines the appearance of the feather coat, which can largely affect the resulting look of a feathered object (bird). In this paper we define the structure of individual feathers using...

An experiment was conducted to evaluate feather meal as a source of Val in lactating sow diets. Sows (five farrowing groups; mean parity = 2.34) were allotted to one of two dietary treatments on the basis of ancestry, parity, and weight and date of d 110 of gestation. The treatment diets included 1) corn-soybean meal lactation diet (n = 40) or 2) corn-soybean meal lactation diet with 2.5% feath...

Feather pecking is a behavioural disorder in laying hens which consists of pecking the feathers of conspecifics, causing feather damage or even injuries to the skin. Its development can be explained by redirection of foraging behaviour. While the occurrence of feather pecking strongly depends on the kind of housing condition, it is also known that there are strain differences in the tendency to...

To study the pattern of gap junctional communication in chicken skin and feather development, we injected Lucifer Yellow into single cells and monitored the transfer of the fluorescent dye through gap junctions. Dye coupling is present between cells of the epithelium as well as between cells of the mesoderm. However, dye transfer did not occur equally in all directions and showed several consis...

Homeoproteins have been shown to be expressed in defined bands along the anteriorposterior (A-P) body axis and are involved in determining the patterns of insect appendages.' In vertebrates, homeoproteins are also expressed in anterior-posterior (A-P) gradient in the spinal cord. Recently, homeoproteins were also shown to be distributed in a gradient in developing limb buds2.3 and feather buds:...

The objective of the current study was to estimate heritabilities (h2) of feather pecking and openfield response of laying hens at two different ages. An F2 cross, originating from a high and a low feather pecking line of laying hens, was used for the experiment. Each of the 630 birds of the F2 cross was subjected to an openfield test (individual, 10 min) at 5 and 29 wk of age and to a social f...

creating the hair. FGFs, BMPs, and Shh are secreted proteins whose binding to receptors on susceptible cells triggers signal transduction changes and transcription Hairs in mammals and feathers in birds are two of the of target genes. Notch receptor, in contrast, is activated smallest and most fascinating organs in the body. These by membrane-bound ligands such as Delta-1 on the keratinized ski...

OBJECTIVE To determine and optimize the sensitivity of the CellaVision DM96 automated image-analysis system in detecting platelet (PLT) clumps on blood smears and to assess the reliability of the traditional laboratory practice of examining only the feather edge of the smear for PLT clumps. METHODS We processed 102 blood smears that revealed PLT clumps on microscopic review, using the CellaVi...