Background: Feather pecking is a serious behavioral disorder in chickens that has a considerable impact on animal welfare and poses an economic burden for poultry farming. To study the underlying genetics of feather pecking animals were divergently selected for feather pecking over 15 generations based on estimated breeding values for the behavior.
Methods and results: By characterizing the transcriptomes of whole brains isolated from high and low feather pecking chickens in response to light stimulation we discovered a putative dysregulation of micro RNA processing caused by a lack of Dicer1. This results in a prominent downregulation of the GABRB2 gene and other GABA receptor transcripts, which might cause a constant high level of excitation in the brains of high feather pecking chickens. Moreover, our results point towards an increase in immune system-related transcripts that may be caused by higher interferon concentrations due to Dicer1 downregulation.
Conclusion: Based on our results, we conclude that feather pecking in chickens and schizophrenia in humans have numerous common features. For instance, a Dicer1 dependent disruption of miRNA biogenesis and the lack of GABRB2 expression have been linked to schizophrenia pathogenesis. Furthermore, disturbed circadian rhythms and dysregulation of genes involved in the immune system are common features of both conditions.
I mean, itās very common for dogs to exhibit separation anxiety from their humans, and we all know cats are a little bit nuts, so I donāt see why not.
Interesting that we would have some commonalities with chickens. I wonder which scientist was like, āchickens + feather pecking = schizophrenia.ā
But I digress.
I think itās wild that animals also have āmental illnessāā if we can call it that.
The truth is, animals are a lot more complex than we give them credit for.
At first glance I thought this might be satirical. Certainly one thing we share with feather pecking hens is high levels of anxiety.
On a more sociological note itās quite revealing that for the authors, feather pecking should, not unlike sz, find its ultimate cause not in high levels of anxiety, often associated with bad living conditions, but in their genes. Iām not questioning the role genes play in both these conditions, only the allegedly self-evident nature of the logical primacy of genes over environment when framing causality.
I would think so. There is no reason why their brains canāt have a chemical imbalance, or be wired the wrong way, or they have nerve problems, etcā¦
Yep, when I leave for work as soon as I say ābyeā my dog knows that means I am leaving and he starts barking like crazy, then when I get home he comes to greet me and is all happy.
I donāt know, when everyone is home he completely fine. I think itās just separation anxiety. He gets upset when I leave and gets happy when I come home, otherwise he is fine the rest of the time.
My cat does. She spent three years living in a childās bedroom before being rehomed to me because the other cats in the home terrorized her. She had bald spots from pulling out her hair when she bathed. Sheās still quirky, but sheās got a proper coat again. Itās been almost four years and she is still unwinding from that trauma so far as we can tell.
Trauma is very real for just about all species, and can manifest in many ways, like how your cat was losing her hair, or even aggressive or territorial behaviors.
So, so happy you guys were able to give her a nice home .
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