Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chicken protein governs eating


Chickens who won’t stop eating lack a protein – cholecystokinin – that signals the bird that it’s had enough.

Scientists at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland made the discovery and have published their findings in the American Journal of Physiology, Edocrinology and Metabolism.

Their discovery is likely to help researchers develop better diets.

It might also help geneticists breed better birds because their discovery came from comparing three genetic strains – fast-growing birds, slow-growing birds and a cross of those two strains.

The lead researcher was Ian Dunn. His work was funded by the United Kingdom’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.