Prenatal Maternal Stress Influences on Chicken Offspring Behavioural Habituation.
2024
Jönsson, Linnea
Maternal stress during the prenatal period can significantly impact offspring behaviour, physiology, and cognition. This study aimed to investigate how prenatal maternal stress affects behavioural habituation in chickens. Female hens were randomly assigned to receive either a corticosterone (CORT) pellet or a placebo pellet before egg formation. The offspring (n=53) were subjected to eight trials of open field and emergence tests at an early age and after sexual maturity. Open field tests measured the total distance travelled and time spent in the outer zone, while emergence tests assessed latency to emerge the head from a box. Linear mixed models, generalized additive models and Cox proportional hazard models were employed to analyse the data. Surprisingly, the results revealed that adult offspring from CORT-treated mothers habituated faster to the emergence test compared to those from placebo-treated mothers, indicating reduced anxiety-like behaviour. However, no significant differences were observed in the open field tests. These findings challenge the conventional notion that prenatal maternal stress leads to increased anxiety in offspring. The study highlights the complex and nuanced effects of maternal stress on behavioural habituation, emphasizing the importance of considering intra-individual variation and the potential influence of moderate stress exposure on offspring resilience. Further research is warranted to elucidate the optimal threshold for stress exposure and its implications for animal welfare and industry practices.
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