Effects of genetic group selection against mortality on behavior and peripheral serotonin in domestic laying hens with trimmed and intact beaks.

Severe feather pecking is a maladaptive behavior in laying hens that may result in cannibalism and ultimately death of the victims. Selection methods in which the genetic effect of an animal on the survival of its group members is taken into account, i.e.

Response to LPS in female offspring from sows treated with cortisol during pregnancy.

Prenatal stress has been shown to program responsiveness of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) and behavior in offspring. In pig husbandry, sows are exposed to stressful conditions during gestation. Previously, cortisol treatment of pregnant sows has been shown to alter stress responsiveness and immunological parameters in their piglets.

Age, gender and litter-related variation in T-lymphocyte cytokine production in young pigs.

The capacity of farm animals to produce cytokines could be an important determinant of robustness and health. From research in rodents and humans it appears that the production and the balance of T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 2 (Th2)-type cytokines influences susceptibility to autoimmune and infectious diseases. It is known that pigs show a large variation in many immune response parameters.

Evaluation of oral administration of cortisol as a model for prenatal stress in pregnant sows.

Objective: To design a treatment that increases plasma corticosteroid concentrations to mimic prenatal stress in pregnant sows.

Animals: 24 pregnant sows.

Procedure: Sows were assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups; treatment consisted of twice-daily oral administration of a placebo or 20, 60, or 180 mg of hydrocortisone acetate (HCA)/sow from 7 to 11 weeks of gestation.

Social stress in male mice impairs long-term antiviral immunity selectively in wounded subjects.

An important property of the antiviral immune response is its time-dependent character. Beginning with a few antigen-specific cells upon infection, it evolves to a stage where there is an abundance of antigen-specific cells and antibodies that are needed to clear the pathogen, and ends with circulating antibodies and a population of virus-specific memory cells to protect the animal from reinfection. Short-term effects of stress on the immune system have been investigated extensively, showing that stress acutely changes many aspects of immunity.