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Simple Summary: In China, although preslaughter stunning is commonly performed in large-scale production systems, this practice is less common in smaller-scale systems. To promote the concept of animal welfare, we selected common local chicken breeds and sampled the meat and blood of chickens with and without stunning. The experimental results verified that stunning before slaughter can improve meat quality, increase flavor and reduce the stress on chickens. It is more respectful of animal welfare and provides a theoretical basis for the promotion of animal welfare concepts in China. Electrical stunning is widely utilized prior to a neck cut to induce unconsciousness in order to improve animal welfare and slaughter efficiency in the broiler production industry. However, slaughter without stunning is still very commonly used in China, in part because there is a belief that stunning reduces meat quality. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the physical (hemorrhages, pH, drip loss, and shear force) and chemical (inosinic monophosphate concentration and reducing sugar content) properties of broiler meat differed between chickens in preslaughter stunning and nonstunned slaughter groups, and whether the groups differed in their levels of cortisol as an indicator of stress. Serum cortisol levels of the nonstunned group were nearly twice as high as those in the stunned group (p < 0.05). Several meat quality indicators were better in the stunned group than in the nonstunned group. We concluded that electrical stunning prior to slaughter significantly decreases the stress caused by slaughter, resulting in both improved animal welfare and meat quality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Beijing You-chicken with a unique flavor and rich nutrition is an excellent local chicken breed in China. Clarifying the change of volatile odor during the storage of chicken is helpful to assist in judging the freshness of chicken. Methods: The total viable count (TVC), total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), lightness value L* and thiobarbituric acid reactive rubstances (TBARS) of chicken breast were measured at 4C and 25C, respectively. And the electronic nose and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technology were used to determine the changes of volatile compounds during storage. Result: Significant changes of the volatile compounds were observed on first day at 25C and the 8th day at 4C of storage, which agreed with the results evaluated by detection of physicochemical indicators. The results of this study could serve as a theoretical basis for future research on detecting changes in chicken freshness by using the electronic nose and GC-MS technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a Chinese local chicken breed, Hongshan chickens have 2 kinds of tail feather phenotypes, normal and taillessness. Our previous studies showed that taillessness was a sex-linked dominant trait. Abnormal development of the tail vertebrae could be explained this phenomenon in some chicken breeds. However, the number of caudal vertebrae in rumpless Hongshan chickens was normal, so rumplessness in Hongshan chicken was not related to the development of the caudal vertebrae. Afterwards, we found that rumplessness in Hongshan was due to abnormal development of tail feather rather than abnormal development of caudal vertebrae. In order to understand the genetic foundation of the rumplessness of Hongshan chickens, we compared and reanalyzed 2 sets of data in normal and rumpless Hongshan chickens from our previous studies. By joint analysis of genome-wide selection signature analysis and genome-wide association approach, we found that 1 overlapping gene (EDIL3) and 16 peak genes (ENSGALG00000051843, ENSGALG00000053498, ENSGALG00000054800, KIF27, PTPRD, ENSGALG00000047579, ENSGALG00000041052, ARHGEF28, CAMK4, SERINC5, ENSGALG00000050776, ERCC8, MCC, ADAMTS19, ENSGALG00000053322, CHRNA8) located on the Z chromosome was associated with the rumpless trait. The results of this study furtherly revealed the molecular mechanism of the rumpless trait in Hongshan chickens, and identified the candidate genes associated with this trait. Our results will help to improve the shape of chicken tail feathers and to rise individual economic value in some specific market in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has about 107 local chicken breeds and is considered one of the richest countries in terms of genetic resources. This diversity is a source of richness natural resources across the globe and is regarded as an excellent material for genetic improvement of breeds or breeding new breeds around the world. The present review highlights the recent evidence and studies of chicken origin and domestication in China and Southeast Asia. The evidence of molecular genetics and archeological results supported that multiple regions and event were contributed to the creation of chicken evolution from Red Jungle fowl and the findings proposed that one of events happened in domestication of chicken 8000 BP in Southeast of Asia. Several researchers confirmed that China was declared as most important of the world as a first centers for the chicken’s domestication and these chickens have remained in many archaeological sites in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pullorum disease is characterized by white diarrhea resulting from infection by S. Pullorum, but arthritis associated with S. Pullorum infection has become increasingly frequent recently, especially in Chinese native chicken flocks. In this study, we isolated and identified 4 S. Pullorum strains from the Qingjiaoma chicken breeders with arthritis symptoms. The LD 50 of the isolate 20JS04 was 1.33 × 106 CFU, which was considered as a highly virulent strain in chicks. Reproducible arthritis symptoms were observed in the experimentally chickens infected with the isolate 20JS04, and the disease occurrence was 27.78% (5/18). In addition to the characteristics of high virulence and induced-arthritis, our results confirmed that the arthritis-causing isolate 20JS04 had greater negative impact on BW, ADFI, and ADG, compared with the white diarrhea-causing S. Pullorum standard strain CVCC526 (P < 0.05). These results suggest that the pathogenic diversity of S. Pullorum in China deserves more attention and stringent measures should be taken to control salmonellosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]