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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #340747
Title: Selection of broilers for increased innate immune markers: Past strategies and looking ahead

Author
item Swaggerty, Christina - Christi
item PEVZNER, IGAL - Cobb-Vantress, Inc
item TAYLOR JR., ROBERT - West Virginia University
item ASHWELL, CHRISTOPHER - North Carolina State University
item ARSENAULT, RYAN - University Of Delaware
item Kogut, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2017
Publication Date: 6/1/2017
Citation: Swaggerty, C.L., Pevzner, I.Y., Taylor Jr., R.L., Ashwell, C.M., Arsenault, R.J., Kogut, M.H. 2017. Selection of broilers for increased innate immune markers: Past strategies and looking ahead. Meeting Proceedings. pp. 20-36.

Interpretive Summary: For economic reasons, the poultry industry produces meat-type birds that grow really fast. However, this has generated birds with compromised immune systems that are more susceptible to infections. More and more people are eating chicken on a regular basis, and the poultry industry needs to find ways to meet the demand while producing a healthy bird. One way the industry keeps their birds healthy is by giving them antibiotics. However, there are a lot of people who do not want to eat chickens that have been treated in this way, so the poultry industry needs to find other approaches to produce healthy chickens. Our lab wants to help the poultry industry identify birds that have a naturally strong immune response so they don’t get sick. We propose that selecting birds with naturally high levels of important immune genes would be a valuable tool and allow the poultry industry to produce a healthy bird that will be a safe and wholesome product for consumers.

Technical Abstract: Economic efficiency demanded by the poultry industry has pushed selection towards high production with improved feed conversion ratios (FCR) and high yield; however, selection based heavily on growth characteristics and other phenotypic traits has adversely affected immune competence. Despite increasing demand for poultry products, public outcry and government regulations, in some instances, have banned the use of antibiotic growth promoters, pressuring the industry to find suitable alternatives to manage flock health. One approach is to incorporate a breeding program that selects birds with a naturally efficient immune response as a means to control key foodborne and poultry pathogens, therefore lessening the need for therapeutic antibiotics and AGP in the feed. We propose that incorporation of a breeding strategy that selects for birds with naturally elevated levels of key innate immune genes would be a valuable tool as part of an integrated, coordinated approach to produce a healthy bird that will be a safe and wholesome product for consumers.