Measuring pro-inflammatory responses of poultry to husbandry-related stressors

 

Exposing animals to stress induces several physiological responses.  One of these responses is a proinflammatory response. We are looking into this response for two reasons:

1. We are developing a quantitative scale of stress responses to address animal welfare issue that are accounted during the process of raising livestock.

2. We are interested to determine how an inflammatory response serves to restore homeostasis following stress.

3. The figure below indicates the stress caused in chickens caused during the stages of marketing, as determined by two pro-inflammatory markers.

 

Key Publication: Wein, Y. Geva, Z., Bar-Shira, E. & Friedman, A. (2017). Transport-related stress and its resolution in turkey pullets: activation of a pro-inflammatory response in peripheral blood leukocytes. Poultry Sci. 96:2601-123.