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Breed from animals that get on well together UFAW symposium delegates told
Breeding from animals that get on well together, rather than always using the most productive individuals, may be the solution to combining improved economic performance in the livestock industry with good welfare.
Selecting for social factors has been shown to have significant productivity benefits for the flock or herd by reducing aggression and injury, according to speakers at a Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) symposium at the University of Bristol on 22-23 June.
Comparisons of the performance of whole groups of animals has never been the focus of selective breeding in agriculture, as farmers have always chosen to look at production parameters of individual animals, such as daily weight, milk yield or litter size. But there is increasing evidence, from a range of domestic species, that being a good neighbour is an inherited trait that animal breeders cannot afford to ignore.
This research follows on from studies by Bill Muir of the department of animal science at Purdue University, Indiana. He has shown that by selecting solely for fast growth in Japanese quails, overall production can decline significantly because of a four-fold increase in mortality owing to an association between fast growth, feather plucking and cannibalism. But choosing calmer and less aggressive birds led to rapid improvements in overall performance.
Bas Rodenburg of Wagenigen University in the Netherlands told the meeting that there were similar results from studies in other, more economically important, species that are normally housed in large groups. His study in chickens showed that selecting birds from groups showing less aggression reduced mortality from 30% to 20% in a single generation compared with birds selected by normal methods. The differences are detectable in other aspects of the birds' behaviour. "Group selection for low mortality leads to animals that are less fearful, more social and more active in a range of behavioural tests," he said.
Studies in pigs have also demonstrated potentially valuable economic effects through selection for social effects, but the picture is more complicated. Pigs selected for a ‘high social breeding value', expected to have a positive effect on the performance of their herd-mates were involved in more fights when mixed with unfamiliar animals. But within a few weeks these pigs were involved in fewer aggressive exchanges, suggesting that they possess inherited traits that encourage the rapid establishment of stable social hierarchies.
Dr Rodenburg said there was increasing interest from breeding companies in looking at ways of incorporating social parameters in their assessments of potential breeding stock. And there is also evidence that addressing broader welfare issues could lead to improvements in economic performance.
Professor Donald Broom of Cambridge University noted that the doubling in milk yields achieved in the dairy cattle industry over the past 40 years has been accompanied by declining fertility, reduced longevity and a higher incidence of conditions such as mastitis and lameness.
In the Nordic countries, farmers have tried to reverse these negative trends by using more balanced selection goals that take account of these disease problems. As a consequence, the Swedish Holstein breed has experience less than half the reduction in fertility seen in the same breed in other countries and the reproductive performance of the Swedish red and white breed has remained constant.
"It is not the case that selecting for welfare traits is uneconomical. Calculation of the Profitable Lifetime Index in the UK suggests that expansion of this to include mastitis resistance and fertility could increase economic response to selection by up to 80%, compared with selection for milk production alone," he said.
Published: 02 Jul 2009
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