Blood Testosterone Concentration and Testosterone-induced Aggressive Behavior in Male Layer Chicks: Comparison between Isolated- and Grouped-Raising

Testosterone (T) is known to induce aggressive behavior, mainly in male animals. Subcutaneous implantation of T-filled silastic tubes, rather than intramuscular injection of T, is generally recommended for long-term treatment using exogenous T. However, the effect of T implantation on chicken aggres...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of Poultry Science 2019, Vol.56(4), pp.290-297
Main Authors: Yan, Zhiqun, Kamiguri, Naomasa, Isobe, Naoki, Kawakami, Shin-Ichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Aggressive behavior
Aggressiveness
Androgen receptors
Animal behavior
Blood
Blood levels
Blood tests
Chickens
Chicks
Implantation
male layer chicks
Plasma
Poultry
Receptors
Social behavior
Social factors
social interaction test
Testosterone
Tubes
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Summary:Testosterone (T) is known to induce aggressive behavior, mainly in male animals. Subcutaneous implantation of T-filled silastic tubes, rather than intramuscular injection of T, is generally recommended for long-term treatment using exogenous T. However, the effect of T implantation on chicken aggressive behavior has not been investigated. In addition, the concentration of T required to induce aggressive behavior or whether rearing conditions such as isolated- or grouped-raising affect T-induced aggressive behavior in chickens is not known. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between the lengths of T-filled tubes, blood T concentration, and aggressive behavior in group- and isolation-raised male layer chicks. The testes were bilaterally removed and silactic tubes of various lengths filled with crystalline T were subcutaneously implanted at 14 days of age. A social interaction test was performed to quantitatively assess chick aggressive behavior at 32 days of age. Comb weight and size were used to assess the activation of endogenous androgen receptors. Total aggression frequencies (TAF) and aggression establishment rate (AER) were used to evaluate aggressiveness. Significant positive correlations (P
ISSN:1346-7395
1349-0486
DOI:10.2141/jpsa.0180135