Using genetic approaches to improve host responses to environmental stressors

Biotic and abiotic environmental stressors have significant impacts on poultry production, health, and well-being. Pathogens are the primary biotic stressors affecting poultry welfare, and among the most important pathogens are avian influenza virus, Newcastle disease virus, and Salmonella. Heat stress is one of the most significant abiotic stressors, especially in tropical regions. Recent developments in genetic and genomic techniques have provided unprecedented advantages in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying genetic control of host response to these stressors, thus facilitating genetic improvement to alleviate negative impacts on poultry well-being. The genes, signal pathways, and genomic regions identified in recent studies that confer genetic control of host response to these environmental stressors in poultry can be utilized to improve poultry welfare by developing targeted marker panels for genetic enhancement. While this holds great promise, due to the complexity of genetic control of poultry host responses to biotic and abiotic stressors further investigation is needed to identify causative variations that control these complex traits.