Establishment of inbred strains of chicken and Japanese quail and their potential as animal models.

We started establishing inbred strains of chicken and Japanese quail in 1970. In class Aves, full sib mating is highly difficult due to inbreeding depression. In the chicken, we attempted to establish some inbred strains in three breeds, Black Minorca, White Leghorn and Fayoumi by fixing all the characters that differentiate individuals homozygously. In this paper, we describe some marker genes and characters fixed in the inbred strains of chicken and Japanese quail as well as a calculation of a putative coefficient of inbreeding in 8 chicken inbred strains using band sharing values detected by AFLP analysis. We established generalized glycogenosis type II quail, myotonic dystrophy quail, neurofilament deficient quail, visually impaired chicken, double oviduct chicken with partial kidney deficiency, chicken showing spontaneous lymphocytic thyroiditis with feathered amelanosis, and chicken with a hereditary nervous disorder. The processes of establishment and characteristics of these animal models are described with some interesting information obtained from these animal models. In generalized glycogenosis type II quail, the results of enzyme replacement therapy and gene therapy are described.