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ABSTRACT Village chickens are ubiquitous in smallholder farming systems, contributing to household, local and national economies under diverse environmental, economic and cultural settings.
However, they are raised in challenging environments where productivity is low while mortality is high. There is much interest in utilizing indigenous genetic resources to produce a chicken
that is resilient to its environment, while at the same time providing the basis of an economically sustainable enterprise. Globally, however, a wide variety of interventions have so far
proved unable to deliver sustainable improvements. Here we show that regional differences in trait preferences and parasite burden are associated with distinct chicken gene pools, probably
in response to interactions between natural and human-driven (economic and social) selection pressures. Drivers of regional differences include marketing opportunities, cultural preferences,
agro-ecologies and parasite populations, and are evident in system adaptations, such as management practices, population dynamics and bird genotypes. Our results provide sound
multidisciplinary evidence to support previous observations that sustainable poultry development interventions for smallholder farmers, including breeding programmes, should be locally
tailored and designed for flexible implementation. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS
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Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS TRADE-OFFS IN THE EXTERNALITIES OF PIG PRODUCTION ARE NOT INEVITABLE Article Open access 11 April 2024 GENOMIC
ANALYSIS OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS CHICKENS REVEALS THEIR GENETIC DIVERSITY AND ADAPTATION TO HEAT-STRESS Article Open access 26 January 2024 IMPACT OF IMPROVED SMALL-SCALE LIVESTOCK FARMING
ON HUMAN NUTRITION Article Open access 08 January 2021 DATA AVAILABILITY The bioclimatic variables that used in this study are available from ‘WorldClim’ (http://www.worldclim.org/). The
land cover variable data are available from the ‘Harmonized World Soil Database’ (http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/External-World-soil-database/HTML/index.html?sb=1). All other
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association studies. _Nat. Methods_ 11, 407–409 (2014). Article CAS Google Scholar Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank the Chicken Health for Development project team members
and the farmers and development agents in the Jarso and Horro districts for their assistance; D. Hume and G. Banos for helpful comments on drafts of the manuscript; and the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Scottish Government for providing funding for the ‘Reducing the impact of
infectious disease on poultry production in Ethiopia’ project under the Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock for International Development (CIDLID) program (BB/H009396/1, BB/H009159/1
and BB/H009051/1). J.M.B., T.D. and O.H. are supported by CGIAR fund donors http://www.cgiar.org/our-funders/. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Deceased: Pete Kaiser. AUTHORS AND
AFFILIATIONS * Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Judy M. Bettridge, Zelalem G. Terfa, Paul Wigley & Robert M. Christley * LiveGene - CTLGH,
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Judy M. Bettridge, Zelalem G. Terfa, Takele T. Desta, Tadelle Dessie & Olivier Hanotte * International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya Judy M. Bettridge * The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Androniki Psifidi
& Pete Kaiser * Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Hatfield, UK Androniki Psifidi * Cells, Organisms and Molecular Genetics,
School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Takele T. Desta & Olivier Hanotte * Animal Breeding and Genomics , Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The
Netherlands Maria Lozano-Jaramillo Authors * Judy M. Bettridge View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Androniki Psifidi View author
publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Zelalem G. Terfa View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Takele T.
Desta View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Maria Lozano-Jaramillo View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed
Google Scholar * Tadelle Dessie View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Pete Kaiser View author publications You can also search for this
author inPubMed Google Scholar * Paul Wigley View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Olivier Hanotte View author publications You can also
search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Robert M. Christley View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS R.M.C., O.H., P.W.,
P.K. and T.D. conceived and designed the research; J.M.B., Z.G.T., T.T.D. and P.K. undertook field sampling; A.P., T.T.D., P.K. and O.H. performed genomic analysis; J.M.B. and R.M.C.
undertook statistical analysis of epidemiological data; Z.G.T. and R.M.C. undertook statistical analysis of socio-economic data; M.L.-J. performed ecological niche modelling; R.M.C., J.M.B.,
A.P. and O.H. wrote the paper with inputs from other authors. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Robert M. Christley. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Supplementary Notes 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1–7, Supplementary Figures 1–5, Supplementary References 1–7 RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints
and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Bettridge, J.M., Psifidi, A., Terfa, Z.G. _et al._ The role of local adaptation in sustainable production of village chickens. _Nat
Sustain_ 1, 574–582 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0150-9 Download citation * Received: 25 January 2018 * Accepted: 04 September 2018 * Published: 15 October 2018 * Issue Date:
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