Animals perceiving repeated aversive events can become chronically stressed. Chronic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis can have deleterious consequences on physiological parameters (e.g. BW, blood chemistry) and behaviour (e.g. emotional reactivity, stereotypies, cognition). Environmental enrichment (EE) can be a mean to reduce animal stress and to improve welfare. The...

Aim Materials and Methods

Quail eggs comprise a significant and favourable part of table eggs in certain countries. Some quail eggs, however, present fishy off-flavor which directly influences their quality. It is reported that flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) is associated with fish-odour trait in human and animal products. FMO3 is responsible for the degradation of trimethylamine (TMA) in vivo. Loss-of-functio...

The common quail (Coturnix coturnix) is a popular game species for which restocking with farm-reared individuals is a common practice. In some areas, the number of released quails greatly surpasses the number of wild breeding common quail. However, common quail are difficult to raise in captivity and this casts suspicion about a possible hybrid origin of the farmed individuals from crosses with...

Actin bundle assembly in specialized structures such as microvilli on intestinal epithelia and Drosophila bristles requires two actin bundling proteins. In these systems, the distinct biochemical properties and temporal localization of actin bundling proteins suggest that these proteins are not redundant. During Drosophila oogenesis, the formation of cytoplasmic actin bundles in nurse cells req...

Thirteen oncogenic and necrotizing animal viruses were assayed in LIFE Sciences, Inc. (LSI)-specific pathogen-free Japanese quail and LSI-specific pathogen-free chicken embryo cell cultures. Nine viruses produced similar titers in the quail and chicken cell systems, whereas four viruses showed significantly higher titers in chickens. Young Japanese quail and chickens were inoculated with five s...

The distribution and behavior of chick primordial germ cells (PGC) injected into quail embryos were examined. PGC from chick embryos at stages 13-14 were injected into the blood stream of quail embryos at stages 15-20. After one day, the quail embryos were examined histologically. The chick PGC in the quail embryos could be readily identified by the histochemical PAS technique, whereas quail PG...

Numerous aversive events occur in poultry production, and if repeated and unpredictable, can result in an impaired welfare. Some events such as handling can be perceived negatively and it is of interest to understand how humans' behaviour could affect poultry's behaviours and especially its avoidance of humans. Our aim was to evaluate short- and long-lasting effects of a 3-week procedure involv...

Quail, like chickens, are susceptible to H5N1 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV). Both birds experience high mortality, but quail usually survive a few more days than chicken. To understand why, we monitored quail and chickens after inoculation with 10(6) fifty-percent egg infectious doses of HPAIV A/whooper swan/Aomori/1/2008 (H5N1). The clinical course initiated as depres...