Genetic analysis of keel bone fractures in laying hens housed in a quasi-commercial aviary.

ABSTRACT: Keel bone fractures (KBF) in laying hens are a major welfare problem in the egg production industry. While housing design and nutrition are known contributing factors, the role of genetics in KBF susceptibility is not well understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the heritability of KBF susceptibility and identify associated genomic regions and candidate genes in commercial laying hens. We used KBF assessment scores derived from radiographs of 1,060 white-feathered two-way crossbred hens housed in a quasi-commercial aviary system. A log-transformation was applied to the KBF scores to normalize the data. All hens were genotyped with a 60 K SNP chip. We fit a linear mixed model with a genomic relationship matrix to estimate variance components and heritability, and conducted a

SUBMITTER: Duenk P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12664023 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature