Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T12:04:06.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Breeding amiable animals? Improving farm animal welfare by including social effects in breeding programmes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

TB Rodenburg*
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
P Bijma
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
ED Ellen
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
R Bergsma
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands Institute for Pig Genetics, PO Box 43, 6640 AA, Beuningen, The Netherlands
S de Vries
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
JE Bolhuis
Affiliation:
Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
B Kemp
Affiliation:
Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
JAM van Arendonk
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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 skills.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2010 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Arnone, M and Dantzer, R 1980 Does frustration induce aggression in pigs? Applied Animal Ethology 6: 351362CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergsma, R, Kanis, E, Knol, EF and Bijma, P 2008 The contribution of social effects to heritable variation in finishing traits of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa). Genetics 178: 15591570CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, M, Moser, C, Lazzarini, C, Vecchiato, E and Crespi, F 2002 Forced swimming test and fluoxetine treatment: in vivo evidence that peripheral 5-HT in rat platelet-rich plasma mirrors cerebral extracellular 5-HT levels, whilst 5-HT in isolated platelets mirrors neuronal 5-HT changes. Experimental Brain Research 143: 191197CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bijma, P, Muir, WM, Ellen, ED, Wolf, JB and van Arendonk, JAM 2007a Multilevel selection 2: estimating the genetic parameters determining inheritance and response to selection. Genetics 175: 289299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bijma, P, Muir, WM and van Arendonk, JAM 2007b Multilevel selection 1: quantitative genetics of inheritance and response to selection. Genetics 175: 277288CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bijma, P and Wade, MJ 2008 The joint effects of kin, multilevel selection and indirect genetic effects on response to genetic selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 11751188CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolhuis, JE, Ellen, ED, Van Reenen, CG, De Groot, J, Ten Napel, J, Koopmanschap, R, De Vries Reilingh, G, Uitdehaag, KA, Kemp, B and Rodenburg, TB 2009 Effects of genetic group selection against mortality on behaviour and peripheral serotonin in domestic laying hens with trimmed and intact beaks. Physiology & Behavior 97: 470475CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolhuis, JE, Schouten, WGP, Schrama, JW and Wiegant, VM 2005a Behavioural development of pigs with different coping characteristics in barren and substrate-enriched housing conditions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 93: 213228CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolhuis, JE, Schouten, WGP, Schrama, JW and Wiegant, VM 2005b Individual coping characteristics, aggressiveness and fighting strategies in pigs. Animal Behaviour 69: 10851091CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolhuis, JE, Schouten, WGP, Schrama, JW and Wiegant, VM 2006 Effects of rearing and housing environment on behaviour and performance of pigs with different coping characteristics. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 101: 6885CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breuer, K, Sutcliffe, MEM, Mercer, JT, Rance, KA, Beattie, VE, Sneddon, IA and Edwards, SA 2003 The effect of breed on the development of adverse social behaviours in pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 84: 5974CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canario, L, Bergsma, R, D’Eath, RB, Lawrence, AB, Roehe, R, Lundeheim, N, Rydhmer, L, Knol, E and Turner, SP 2010 Genetic associations of group effects for growth, estimated using a cooperation model, with post-mixing agonistic behaviours, skin lesions and activity in pigs In: Kirkwood, J, Hubrecht, R and Wickens, S (eds) UFAW International Symposium ‘Darwinian selection, selective breeding and the welfare of animals’. 23-25 June 2009, Bristol, UKGoogle Scholar
Cheng, HW, Freire, R, Pajor, EA, Chen, Y and Muir, WM 2001 Different regulation of physiological and behavioral response to social stress in two genetically selected lines of laying hens. In: Garner, JP, Mench, JA and Heekin, SP (eds) Proceedings of the 35th International Congress of the ISAE pp128. Davis, USAGoogle Scholar
Cheng, HW, Freire, R and Pajor, EA 2004 Endotoxin stress responses in chickens from different genetic lines 1. sickness, behavioral, and physical responses. Poultry Science 83: 707715CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheng, HW and Muir, WM 2004 Chronic social stress differentially regulates neuroendocrine responses in laying hens II. Genetic basis of adrenal responses under three different social conditions. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29: 961971CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheng, HW and Muir, WM 2005 The effects of genetic selection for survivability and productivity on chicken physiological homeostasis. World's Poultry Science Journal 61: 383397Google Scholar
Cloutier, S, Newberry, RC, Honda, K and Alldredge, JR 2002 Cannibalistic behaviour spread by social learning. Animal Behaviour 63: 11531162CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellen, ED, Muir, WM and Bijma, P 2007 Genetic improvement of traits affected by interactions among individuals: sib selection schemes. Genetics 176: 489499CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellen, ED, Visscher, J, van Arendonk, JAM and Bijma, P 2008 Survival of laying hens: Genetic parameters for direct and associative effects in three purebred layer lines. Poultry Science 87: 233239CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffing, B 1967 Selection in reference to biological groups I. Individual and group selection applied to populations of unordered groups. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 20: 127139CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffing, B 1976 Selection in reference to biological groups V. Analysis of full-sib groups. Genetics 82: 703722CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hagels⊘ Giersing, M and Studnitz, M 1996 Characterization and investigation of aggressive behaviour in the pig. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section A Animal Science 27: 5660Google Scholar
Hessing, MJC, Hagels⊘, AM, van Beek, JAM, Wiepkema, RP, Schouten, WGP and Krukow, R 1993 Individual behavioural characteristics in pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 37: 285295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hessing, MJC, Schouten, WGP, Wiepkema, PR and Tielen, MJM 1994 Implications of individual behavioural characteristics on performance in pigs. Livestock Production Science 40: 187196CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, RB, Blokhuis, HJ and Beuving, G 1995 Open-field and tonic immobility responses in domestic chicks of two genetic lines differing in their propensity to feather peck. British Poultry Science 36: 525530CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kjaer, JB and Guémené, D 2009 Adrenal reactivity in lines of domestic fowl selected on feather pecking behavior. Physiology & Behavior 96: 370373CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, AJ, Brodie III, ED and Wolf, JB 1997 Interacting phenotypes and the evolutionary process: I. Direct and indirect genetic effects of social interactions. Evolution 51: 13521362CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muir, WM 1996 Group selection for adaptation to multiplehen cages: selection program and direct responses. Poultry Science 75: 447458CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muir, WM 2005 Incorporation of competitive effects in Forest Tree or animal breeding programs. Genetics 170: 12471259CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rausch, JL, Johnson, ME, Li, J, Hutcheson, J, Carr, BM, Corley, KM, Gowans, AB and Smith, J 2005 Serotonin transport kinetics correlated between human platelets and brain synaptosomes. Psychopharmacology 180: 391398Google ScholarPubMed
Rodenburg, TB, Buitenhuis, AJ, Ask, B, Uitdehaag, KA, Koene, P, van der Poel, JJ, van Arendonk, JAM and Bovenhuis, H 2004 Genetic and phenotypic correlations between feather pecking and open-field response in laying hens at two different ages. Behavior Genetics 34: 407415CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodenburg, TB, Komen, H, Ellen, ED, Uitdehaag, KA and van Arendonk, JAM 2008 Selection method and early-life history affect behavioural development, feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens: A review. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 110: 217228CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodenburg, TB, Bolhuis, JE, Koopmanschap, RE, Ellen, ED and Decuypere, E 2009a Maternal care and selection for low mortality affect post-stress corticosterone and peripheral serotonin in laying hens. Physiology & Behavior 98: 519523CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodenburg, TB, Uitdehaag, KA, Ellen, ED and Komen, J 2009b The effects of selection on low mortality and brooding by a mother hen on open-field response, feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens. Animal Welfare 18: 427432Google Scholar
Turner, SP, Farnworth, MJ, White, IMS, Brotherstone, S, Mendl, M, Knap, P, Penny, P and Lawrence, AB 2006 The accumulation of skin lesions and their use as a predictor of individual aggressiveness in pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 96: 245259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uitdehaag, KA, Rodenburg, TB, van Reenen, CG, Koopmanschap, RE, De Vries Reilingh, G, Engel, B, Buist, WG, Komen, H and Bolhuis, JE Serotonin, behavior and feather pecking of laying hens in different social environments, submittedGoogle Scholar
van Hierden, YM, de Boer, SF, Koolhaas, JM and Korte, SM 2004 The control of feather pecking by serotonin. Behavioral Neuroscience 118: 575583CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed