| Title: |
Body weight variation is a good proxy of abdominal fat weight in laying hens at 90 weeks of age |
| Authors: |
Hubert, Alexandre; Bedere, Nicolas; Degalez, Fabien; Allain, Coralie; Becot, Lorry; Berger, Quentin; Burlot, Thierry; Emily, Mathieu; Ferry, Alexandre; Lagoutte, Laetitia; Lebez, Bénédicte; Sanchez, Marie-Pierre; Tribout, Thierry; Pitel, Frédérique; Zerjal, Tatiana; Allais, Sophie; Lagarrigue, Sandrine |
| Contributors: |
Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage Rennes (PEGASE); Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut Agro Rennes Angers; Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro); NOVOGEN; Groupe Grimaud; Génétique Animale et Biologie Intégrative (GABI); AgroParisTech-Université Paris-Saclay-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE); Institut de Recherche Mathématique de Rennes (IRMAR); Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes); Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-École normale supérieure - Rennes (ENS Rennes)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Agro Rennes Angers; Génétique Physiologie et Systèmes d'Elevage (GenPhySE); École nationale vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT); Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP); Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP); Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-École nationale supérieure agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT, INP-ENSAT, AgroToulouse, INP-AgroToulouse); Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan (EI Purpan); Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse); ANR-20-CE20-0029,EFFICACE,Analyse du contrôle génétique de différents caractères sur de longues carrières de production, chez la poule pondeuse(2020); European Project: 101000236,H2020-SFS-2018-2020,H2020-SFS-2020-2,GEroNIMO(2021) |
| Source: |
PAG33 ; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05560720 ; PAG33, Jan 2026, San diego (Californie), France. , https://plan.core-apps.com/pag33/abstract/f46d3ec29ed9229b5f9cd25e124828bd, 2026 ; https://intlpag.org/PAG33/ |
| Publisher Information: |
CCSD |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier: HAL-UPS |
| Subject Terms: |
[SDV.GEN.GA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Animal genetics |
| Subject Geographic: |
San diego (Californie); France |
| Description: |
International audience ; Body reserve levels are known to influence production performance and longevity in livestock species, and their management is therefore of interest for breeding programs. In laying hens, we have recently demonstrated that abdominal fat weight (AFW) at the end of the production cycle is genetically correlated with key economic traits, being positively correlated with laying rate and negatively correlated with egg weight at 90 weeks of age. While AFW is not a primary selection objective, controlling it can contribute to improving both metabolic efficiency and reproductive performance. Direct measurement of AFW, however, requires slaughter and dissection, preventing its use as a routine selection criterion. As an alternative, we evaluated in this study the potential of using body weight difference between two adult ages (DBW) as a non-invasive proxy for AFW in late-stage laying hens. In aging hens, body weight variation is expected to largely reflect changes in body reserves.Genetic parameters were estimated for AFW (measured at 90 weeks in 1,114 hens) and for DBW between 30 and 70 weeks (DBW70) or between 30 and 90 weeks (DBW90), traits available for much larger datasets (9,656 and 1,657 hens, respectively) due to their non-invasive nature. Very high genetic correlations were observed between AFW with DBW70 (0.75) and DBW90 (0.78), supporting the hypothesis that around three quarters of the genetic variance in AFW is captured by DBW. It can be noted that the correlation between back fat thickness (BFT) and DBW were lower, 0.45 and 0.46, respectively, suggesting that these two body reserve traits are distinct traits, despite the relatively high overall genetic correlation of 0.67 observed between them. This observation is consistent with a previous study (Bédère et al 2025). To go further in the genetic characterization of these traits, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were conducted for DBW70, and DBW90 and compared with those obtained previously for AFW (3 QTLs on chromosomes 2, 8 ... |
| Document Type: |
conference object; still image |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement//101000236/EU/GEroNIMO: Genome and Epigenome eNabled breedIng in MOnogastrics/GEroNIMO |
| Availability: |
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05560720; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05560720v1/document; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05560720v1/file/PAG_Proxy.pdf |
| Rights: |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ; info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.8B8F209F |
| Database: |
BASE |