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Molecular differences exist between birds with high residual water intake (HRWI) compared to those with low residual water intake (LRWI). Residual water intake (RWI) is defined as the difference between the water intake of a bird and the expected water intake corrected for metabolic body weight, feed intake, and body weight gain. Tissue metabolomic analysis revealed significantly increased kidney glucose, fructose, and arabitol in the LRWI group compared to the HRWI group. mRNA expression analysis of apical sodium glucose cotransporters SGLT1, SGLT4, SGLT5, and SGLT6 showed decreased expression of SGLTs 1, 5, and 6 in LRWI birds (p < 0.05), whereas SGLT4 expression was increased compared with HRWI birds (p < 0.01). An analysis of basal glucose transporters GLUT1, GLUT2, GLUT5, and GLUT9 showed significantly increased GLUT2 expression in LRWI birds compared with HRWI birds (p < 0.01). We postulate that SGLT4 is the main apical transporter in chicken kidneys and that its increased expression reduces these birds’ need for water, resulting in less drinking. This is balanced by the increased expression of the basal transporter GLUT2, indicating better glucose retention, which may partly explain the physiological mechanism behind why these birds drink less water. Innately driven broiler water intake could therefore be influenced by the expression of kidney solute transporters.

ABSTRACT: Even though water is the most essential nutrient for poultry production, adequate data on individual water intake in broiler chickens and its relationship with other traits of economic importance is scant. Water is provided to chickens in an unrestricted manner in spite of being a finite resource. Climate change continues to affect water sources and efficient bird use of water is long overdue. Understanding the biological basis of water intake is essential for sustainability of the poultry industry. Individual water and feed intake, and growth data was collected on 520 commercial broilers aged 14 to 42 days. We introduced the concepts of water conversion ratio (WCR) and residual water intake (RWI) as parameters that can be used to assess water intake efficiency. Water conversion ratio was defined as the amount of water consumed per unit of body weight gain, and RWI was defined as the difference between the actual water intake (WI) of a given bird and the expected WI by an average bird from the population with the same metabolic body weight, feed intake (FI) and body weight gain (BWG). The correlation between WI and FI was positive (r=0.77; P

ABSTRACT: Heavy selection for growth in turkeys has led to a decay in leg soundness and walking ability. In this study, different models and traits were used to investigate the genetic relationships between body weight (BW) and walking ability (WA) in a turkey population. The data consisted of BW and WA traits collected on 276,059 male birds. Body weight was measured at 12 and 20 wk and WA at 20 wk of age. For WA, birds were scored based on a 1 (bad) to 6 (good) grading system. Due to the small number of records with scores 5 and 6, birds with WA scores of 4, 5, and 6 were grouped together resulting in only 4 classes. Additionally, a binary classification of WA (scores 1 and 2 = Similarly, an estimate of the genetic correlation between WA and BW at 20 wk was −0.45, indicating a more pronounced class 1; scores 3, 4, 5, and 6 = class 2) was evaluated. The inheritability estimates of WA ranged between 0.25 and 0.27 depending on the number of classes. The Heritability of BW at 12 and 20 wk was 0.44 and 0.51, respectively. The genetic correlation between WA and BW at 12 wk was around −0.35, indicating that heavy birds tend to have poor WA. antagonistic relationship between BW and WA. The genetic correlation between BW at 12 and 20 wk was positive and high (0.80). The residual correlation between WA and BW at 12 and 20 wk of age was −0.07 and −0.02, respectively. The residual correlation between body weight traits was 0.57. Similar results were observed when a binary classification was adopted for WA. The probability of an individual with a given genetic merit expressing a certain class of WA was determined for different fixed effect designations. Predictive probabilities clearly showed that birds when hatched in the winter would have a small chance to exhibit good WA phenotypes.

Glucose level in birds’ tissue decreases due to heat stress (HS)-induced reduction in feed intake (FI); impairing metabolism and growth. The effect of glucose supplementation on the performance of broiler chickens was evaluated under thermoneutral (TN) and HS conditions. Glucose was supplemented at 0 and 6% under TN-(25 °C) and HS-(25 °C–35 °C–25 °C) conditions. The treatments were TN + 0%-glucose (TN0); TN + 6%-glucose (TN6), HS + 0%-glucose (HS0) and HS + 6%-glucose (HS6). There were 6 replicates (19 birds each)/treatment. Heat and glucose supplementation were applied from d28–35. At d35, Pectoralis (P.) major was sampled from one bird/replicate to determine glucose transporters’ mRNA expression. Heat application lowered (p < 0.05) FI, body weight gain, and increased feed and water conversion ratios. Glucose supplementation increased total energy intake by 4.9 and 3.2% in TN and HS groups, respectively but reduced FI under TN and HS conditions. The P. major- and drumstick-yield reduced (p < 0.05) in HS0 compared to TN0, TN6 and HS6. Under HS, glucose supplementation improved eviscerated carcass weight by 9% and P. major yield by 14%. Glucose supplementation increased SGLT1 expression with/without heat treatment while HS independently increased the expression of GLUT 1, 5 and 10. Glucose supplementation under HS could improve performance of broilers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential non-linear relationship between growth and walking ability (WA). The phenotypic data included body weights at 12 and 20 weeks and WA at 20 weeks of age measured on 276,059 male turkeys. The growth rate at three age periods (0 to 12, 12 to 20 and 0 to 20 weeks) was calculated. Each bird was assigned to one of the quartiles of the growth rate distribution for each age period. Between the first and fourth quartiles, the incidence of score 1 (bad WA) increased by 31, 18, and 33% for the first, second, and third age periods, respectively. For good WA (scores 4, 5, and 6), the incidence decreased by 55, 66, and 72% between the first and fourth quartiles for the first, second, and third age periods, respectively. Estimates of heritability of WA ranged between 0.18 and 0.26. The genetic correlations between adjacent growth rate quartiles were high and decayed as the interval between quartiles increased. The magnitude of the variation in the incidence of walking scores and genetic correlations across the growth rate quartiles point towards a non-linear relationship between growth and mobility suggesting other factors may affect walking ability.