Nociception in Chicken Embryos, Part III: Analysis of Movements before and after Application of a Noxious Stimulus

2023/09/08 by Stephanie C. Süß, Julia Werner, Anna M. Saller +10 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Medicine · #Animal Nutrition and Physiology #Meat and Animal Product Quality #Medicinal Plants and Neuroprotection

paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/ani13182859

openalex publication_date 2023/09/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

Many potentially noxious interventions are performed on chicken embryos in research and in the poultry industry. It is therefore essential and in the interest of animal welfare to be able to precisely define the point at which a chicken embryo is capable of nociception in ovo. The present part III of a comprehensive study examined the movements of developing chicken embryos with the aim of identifying behavioral responses to a noxious stimulus. For this purpose, a noxious mechanical stimulus and a control stimulus were applied in a randomized order. The recorded movements of the embryos were evaluated using the markerless pose estimation software DeepLabCut and manual observations. After the application of the mechanical stimulus, a significant increase in beak movement was identified in 15- to 18-day-old embryos. In younger embryos, no behavioral changes related to the noxious stimulus were observed. The presented results indicate that noxious mechanical stimuli at the beak base evoke a nocifensive reaction in chicken embryos starting at embryonic day 15.

Citations

• Big behavior: challenges and opportunities in a new era of deep behavior profiling
• The revised International Association for the Study of Pain definition of pain: concepts, challenges, and compromises

Cited by

• Feasibility of High-Frequency Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Assess the In Ovo Development of Chicken Embryos
• Stop culling male layer-type chick: an overview of the alternatives and public perspective

Discussions

• This is the most recent in an interesting series of papers looking at when the nociceptive response begins in chicken embryos - an important step toward determining when pain experience begins (for wh [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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