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. 2025 Apr 14;26(1):371.
doi: 10.1186/s12864-025-11561-6.

Growth resilience to weather variation in commercial free-ranging chickens in Ethiopia

Georgios Banos  1 , Mekonnen Girma  2 , Bersabhe Solomon  2 , Pourya Davoudi  3 , Wondmeneh Esatu  2 , Tadelle Dessie  2 , Androniki Psifidi  4   5 , Kellie Watson  4   6 , Olivier Hanotte  2   7 , Enrique Sánchez-Molano  8   9
Affiliations

Growth resilience to weather variation in commercial free-ranging chickens in Ethiopia

Georgios Banos et al. BMC Genomics. .

Abstract

Background: The poultry industry in sub-Saharan Africa is a rapidly developing sector mostly based on smallholder farming. Increased demand for poultry-derived products, driven by the growing economy and population, has intensified importations of highly productive exotic breeds and crossbreeding with local ecotypes. However, commercial chickens with exotic genes often struggle to adapt to the local climate under smallholder farmers management. Understanding the chicken response to weather changes is crucial for developing selection schemes that ensure proper adaptation. In the present study, we derived individual phenotypes for growth resilience of commercial free-ranging chickens to changing weather conditions in Ethiopia. In addition, we performed genomic association analyses to assess the genetic background of these phenotypes and identify potential candidate genes of interest.

Results: Novel resilience phenotypes describing changes in chicken growth profiles in response to weather fluctuation were developed. Variations in daily air temperature, relative humidity and amount of precipitation had the strongest impact on growth. Significant genomic variance was detected for growth resilience to changes in air temperature measurements and a temperature-humidity index. Genomic markers correlated with these resilience traits were mostly located within or near candidate genes associated with lipid metabolism and adipocyte homeostasis. Some of these genes have been previously linked to animal responses to environmental stressors in other species.

Conclusions: The phenotypes of growth resilience of chickens to changing weather conditions exhibited significant genomic variation. The outcomes of this study may facilitate the genomic selection of commercial chickens that are not only highly productive, but also capable of maintaining their production levels under varying weather conditions.

Keywords: Chicken; Climate change; Genomics; Growth; Sub-Saharan Africa; Weather resilience.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All animal protocols for the present study complied with the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 procedures and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI; Approval no: ILRI-IACUC2020-10) and the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board of the University of Edinburgh (OS12-19). The previous study that provided the data was also approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the International Livestock Research Institute and was conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Population reaction norms at the phenotypic level for each weather variable. Air temperatures are in degrees centigrade (oC), relative humidity in percentage, and amount of precipitation in millimetres (mm); growth is in grams per day
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