Dongxiang or Lushi

[Glenstorm63]

No donxiang or Lushi in Australia. Our quarantine laws are very strong so no imports of such breeds, a pity but I understand why.

 

[41714049]

That would be interesting to see what would come from an araucana based bird and a Chinese blue egg breed. From the current research available the gene injected by the retrovirus actually activates the blue egg gene. Although both breeds essentially have the same activation code added to their DNA, the location of this code is different. This means that the South American and Asian blue egg chickens developed the ability to lay blue eggs independently.

This could mean that a hybrid would essentially have an enhanced blue egg ability... or because the code is just code that activates the already existing gene, it could be that there is no gain in blue colour.

 

[CotopaxiChick]

I would love to find some of the Lushi chickens myself. Probably going to be a private breeder is what I am thinking.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I would love to find some of the Lushi chickens myself.  Probably going to be a private breeder is what I am thinking.

I don't think there are any in the U.S.

 

[Fowlcraft]

You can get fibromelanosis, the blue egg gene, and a straight comb from crosses between Silverudd's Blue (AKA blue Isbar) and the Svart Hona. There is a breeder who sells them as "Swedish Blue Hens". I have also seen them called "Swedish Bluebars".



I think it makes an attractive mix, though sort of small. Should lay fairly well, and also have a pleasant temperament.

 

[Kindercare]

Thanks for the info. I did some googling but the only place I could find was gracefulchickens.com. There also seems to be some pretty wide variation in what is considered a "Swedish blue hen". Also, looks like they lay mint green eggs, so light blue and brown in the genetics.

Know of any other breeders?

 

[Fowlcraft]

I got the picture above from the Facebook page of Cedar Crest farm and feed in Ohio. http://www.facebook.com/cedarcrestfarmohio/
They don't mention them on their main web page. I also noticed Graceful chickens no longer has their main web page, maybe they stopped raising chickens or something.

Hmm. Well, it would still be a simple enough cross to do yourself if you wanted. The single comb is always nice in my opinion, because it helps the birds cool off. From what I have seen, summer heat is more deadly to chickens than frostbitten combs.

I'm sure there are people crossing Cemanis with Legbars as well, to try and achieve something similar. I don't think that would be as successful though, because the barring gene (from the Legbar) supposedly messes up fibromelanism. Isbars are probably the better choice for obtaining the blue egg gene.

 

[Kindercare]

That's exactly what I was wondering. If you crossed one of these Chinese blue-egg breeds with an Auracana, Ameraucana or Cream Legbar would you get a brighter, deeper blue egg? I'd like to see what would happen!

I found this in a study published in Nature here: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26484

Candidate retroviral insertions specific to GA chickens

The genetic determination of blue egg shell coloration has been identified in Araucana chickens; it has been revealed that EAV-HP insertion promotes the expression of SLCO1B3 gene in the uterus of the oviduct in Araucana chickens, which causes blue egg shell formation9,29. Our results identified retroviral insertions from three GA genomes in SLCO1B3 gene equally. Dong Xiang (DX) chickens are another blue-egg laying breed29; EAV-HP insertion was also identified in the DX genome sequence adjacent to the insertion of the SLCO1B3 gene in GA, which indicates that GA and DX share genetic characteristics with other breeds that lay blue eggs. All of these results are consistent with previous reports9,29.

As we detected the presence of TE insertions using multiple TE probe sequences at the breakpoint, it was necessary to verify that the sequences of TE insertions are identical. In order to validate the presence of EAV-HP sequence, we carried out local de novo assembly with Velvet30 using the reads mapped within 1000 upstream and downstream of the candidate breakpoint. From this process, we obtained several contigs and aligned these with the TE probes we used for TE identification. Next, we conducted multiple sequence alignment over sequences recovered from the above process of several individuals, and retrieved partial conserved TE sequences (142 bp) from 3 GA and DX genomes. Collectively, the commonly identified insertion of EAV-HP in three GA chickens was identical to that of previous experimental studies9,29.


So...sounds like same gene slightly different location on DNA strand?

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

So then the question is can you cross both and inbreed to get homozygous copies in both locations and intensity the blue because of a double copy?

 

[boskelli1571]

I know this is an old thread but info on Dongxiang and Lushi - www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/13E05A07.pdf . It's not much but maybe will help you