Open AccessJournal Article
Breeding amiable animals? Improving farm animal welfare by including social effects in breeding programmes
T.B. Rodenburg,Piter Bijma,Esther D. Ellen,R. Bergsma,S. de Vries,J.E. Bolhuis,Bas Kemp,J.A.M. van Arendonk +7 more
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It is indicated that including social effects into breeding programmes is a promising way to reduce negative social interactions in farm animals, and possibly to also increase positive social interactions, by breeding animals with better social skills.Abstract:
Social interactions between individuals, such as co-operation and competition, are key factors in evolution by natural selection. As a consequence, evolutionary biologists have developed extensive theories to understand the consequences of social interactions for response to natural selection. Current genetic improvement programmes in animal husbandry, in contrast, largely ignore the implications of social interactions for the design of breeding programmes. Recently, we have developed theoretical and empirical tools to quantify the magnitude of heritable social effects, ie the heritable effects that animals have on their group mates' traits, in livestock populations, and to utilise those effects in genetic improvement programmes. Results in commercial populations of pigs and laying hens indicate large heritable social effects, and the potential to substantially increase responses to selection in traits affected by social interactions. In pigs, including social effects into the breeding programme affected aggressive behaviour, both at mixing and in stable groups, indicating changes in the way dominance relationships are established and in aggressiveness. In laying hens, we applied selection between kin-groups to reduce mortality due to cannibalistic pecking. This resulted in a considerable difference in mortality between the low mortality line and the unselected control line in the first generation (20 vs 30%). Furthermore, changes in behavioural and neurobiological responses to stress were detected in the low mortality line, pointing to reduced fearfulness and stress sensitivity. These first results indicate that including social effects into breeding programmes is a promising way to reduce negative social interactions in farm animals, and possibly to also increase positive social interactions, by breeding animals with better social skillsread more
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The welfare implications of large litter size in the domestic pig I: biological factors
Kenneth M.D. Rutherford,Emma M. Baxter,Richard B. D’Eath,Simon P. Turner,Gareth Arnott,Rainer Roehe,Birgitte Ask,Peter Sandøe,V. A. Moustsen,F. Thorup,Sandra Edwards,P. Berg,Alistair Lawrence +12 more
TL;DR: It is concluded that, in a number of ways, large litter size is a risk factor for decreased animal welfare in pig production and possible biological approaches to mitigating health and welfare issues associated with large litters are being implemented.
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Injurious tail biting in pigs: How can it be controlled in existing systems without tail docking?
Richard B. D’Eath,Gareth Arnott,Simon P. Turner,Thessa Jensen,H. P. Lahrmann,M. E. Busch,Jarkko K. Niemi,Alistair Lawrence,Peter Sandøe +8 more
TL;DR: A quantitative comparison of the efficacy of different methods of provision of manipulable materials, and a review of current practices in countries and assurance schemes where tail docking is banned, both suggest that daily provision of small quantities of destructible, manipULable natural materials can be of considerable benefit.
Journal ArticleDOI
The prevention and control of feather pecking: application to commercial systems
Christine J Nicol,Monique Bestman,A-M. Gilani,E.N. de Haas,I.C. de Jong,Sarah L Lambton,J.P. Wagenaar,C. A. Weeks,T.B. Rodenburg +8 more
TL;DR: The genetic basis of feather pecking is considered, and studies that suggest group selection techniques could produce birds with a reduced tendency to feather peck in commercial flocks are highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI
The prospects of selection for social genetic effects to improve welfare and productivity in livestock.
Esther D. Ellen,T. Bas Rodenburg,G. Albers,J. Elizabeth Bolhuis,Irene Camerlink,N. Duijvesteijn,Egbert F. Knol,William M. Muir,Katrijn Peeters,I. Reimert,Ewa Sell-Kubiak,Johan A.M. van Arendonk,Jeroen Visscher,Piter Bijma +13 more
TL;DR: This review demonstrates that selection for socially-affected traits, using methods that target both the direct and social genetic effects, is a promising, but sometimes difficult to use in practice, tool to simultaneously improve production and welfare in livestock.
Journal ArticleDOI
Breeding for better welfare: genetic goals for broiler chickens and their parents
Marian Stamp Dawkins,R. Layton +1 more
TL;DR: The conflict between good welfare and productivity can be reduced by making use of all available genetic variation from existing breeds and other sources and selecting birds in the range of environments they will encounter in commercial production.