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QTL for Body Composition Traits During Heat Stress Revealed in an Advanced Intercross Line of Chickens
Breeding chickens for heat tolerance is desirable. The F18 and F19 generations of a broiler by Fayoumi advanced intercross line (AIL) was used to facilitate fine mapping of QTL. Three major phenotype collection phases were: pre-heat, acute heat, and chronic heat, with birds being exposed to daily heat cycles from 22 to 28 days of age. Body temperature was measured at all three phases; body weight at pre-heat and chronic heat phases. Breast muscle yield (as percentage of body weight) was measured after necropsy at d 28. Feed digestibility was assayed from ileal content collected at d 28. Birds were genotyped using a 600K Affymetrix chicken SNP array. Using GenSel significant QTL were found for each of the measured traits, indicating the feasibility of improving performance under hot conditions by genomic selection. This is the first GWAS using this novel AIL of chickens under heat stress.
Keywords:
GWAS
