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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2017, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (12): 1158-1167.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.17-132

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The biological function of pigeon crop milk and the regulation of its production

Yi Luo(),Xun Wang(),Yao Ma,Xiaokai Li   

  1. Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
  • Received:2017-04-10 Revised:2017-06-24 Online:2017-12-20 Published:2017-12-20
  • Supported by:
    the Application Basic Research Plan Project of Sichuan Province(2016JY0167);the Key Project of Sichuan Education Department(15ZA0008);the Program for Innovative Research Team of Sichuan Province(2015TD0012)

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Abstract:

The pigeon (Columba livia) is one of the few birds capable of secreting nutrients to nourish squabs. During the incubation period, the crop of the parent pigeon will be thickened. When squabs are hatched, the crop milk will be secreted from the crop and fed to squabs. The nutritional benefits are similar between the pigeon crop milk and mammalian milk, and both of them are regulated by prolactin. Prolactin stimulates the proliferation of crop epithelial cells, which eventually slough to form the crop milk. Evidence suggests that the complex process may be associated with the transcription of the AnxIcp35 gene and the activation of JAK/STAT and Wnt signal pathways. In this review, we summarize the main components and the biological function of the crop milk, the histological changes of the crop and the regulatory mechanism of crop milk secretion.

Key words: crop milk, crop, pigeon, prolactin