Identification of QTLs for behavioral reactivity to social separation and humans in sheep using the OvineSNP50 BeadChip

Hazard, Dominique; Moréno, Carole; Foulquie, Didier; Delval, Eric; François, Dominique; Bouix, Jacques; Sallé, Guillaume; Boissy, Alain

doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-778

Cited by 23 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Further work is needed to validate a practical on-farm assessment of fear of humans that could be applied to extensive systems. Recent studies by Hazard et al [51,52] have investigated several behavioral traits in sheep that could be used to validate the assessment of fear of human in extensive farming conditions. Additionally, limited work has been done to develop practical on-farm assessments for clinical and sub-clinical mastitis [10].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal-Based Measures to Assess the Welfare of Extensively Managed Ewes

Munoz

Campbell

Hemsworth

et al. 2017

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Simple SummaryThe aim of this study was to assess the reliability and practicality of 10 animal-based welfare measures for extensively managed ewes, which were derived from the scientific literature, previous welfare protocols and through consultation with veterinarians and animal welfare scientists. Measures were examined on 100 Merino ewes, which were individually identified and repeatedly examined at mid-pregnancy, mid-lactation and weaning. Body condition score, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score and lameness are proposed for on-farm use in welfare assessments of extensive sheep production systems. These six welfare measures, which address the main welfare concerns for extensively managed ewes, can be reliably and feasibly measured in the field.AbstractThe reliability and feasibility of 10 animal-based measures of ewe welfare were examined for use in extensive sheep production systems. Measures were: Body condition score (BCS), rumen fill, fleece cleanliness, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score, foot-wall integrity, hoof overgrowth and lameness, and all were examined on 100 Merino ewes (aged 2–4 years) during mid-pregnancy, mid-lactation and weaning by a pool of nine trained observers. The measures of BCS, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score and lameness were deemed to be reliable and feasible. All had good observer agreement, as determined by the percentage of agreement, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) and Kappa (k) values. When combined, these nutritional and health measures provide a snapshot of the current welfare status of ewes, as well as evidencing previous or potential welfare issues.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal-Based Measures to Assess the Welfare of Extensively Managed Ewes

Munoz

Campbell

Hemsworth

et al. 2017

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, for the GDMR trait, we investigated differences between lamb families by testing a family effect (10 classes), nested in the year effect, according to the GLM procedure describe above. This was only used for GDMR because the genetic variability of the other traits included in the present study has already been described ( Bibé et al, 2002 ; Allain et al, 2014 ; Hazard et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Determinism Exists for the Global DNA Methylation Rate in Sheep

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent studies showed that epigenetic marks, including DNA methylation, influence production and adaptive traits in plants and animals. So far, most studies dealing with genetics and epigenetics considered DNA methylation sites independently. However, the genetic basis of the global DNA methylation rate (GDMR) remains unknown. The main objective of the present study was to investigate genetic determinism of GDMR in sheep. The experiment was conducted on 1,047 Romane sheep allocated into 10 half-sib families. After weaning, all the lambs were phenotyped for global GDMR in blood as well as for production and adaptive traits. GDMR was measured by LUminometric Methylation Analysis (LUMA) using a pyrosequencing approach. Association analyses were conducted on some of the lambs (n = 775) genotyped by using the Illumina OvineSNP50 BeadChip. Blood GDMR varied among the animals (average 70.7 ± 6.0%). Female lambs had significantly higher GDMR than male lambs. Inter-individual variability of blood GDMR had an additive genetic component and heritability was moderate (h2 = 0.20 ± 0.05). No significant genetic correlation was found between GDMR and growth or carcass traits, birthcoat, or social behaviors. Association analyses revealed 28 QTLs associated with blood GDMR. Seven genomic regions on chromosomes 1, 5, 11, 17, 24, and 26 were of most interest due to either high significant associations with GDMR or to the relevance of genes located close to the QTLs. QTL effects were moderate. Genomic regions associated with GDMR harbored several genes not yet described as being involved in DNA methylation, but some are already known to play an active role in gene expression. In addition, some candidate genes, CHD1, NCO3A, KDM8, KAT7, and KAT6A have previously been described to be involved in epigenetic modifications. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that blood GDMR in domestic sheep is under polygenic influence and provide new insights into DNA methylation genetic determinism.

show abstract

“…They found no QTL overlaps on these two traits which supports the hypothesis that different genetic factors influence behavioural responses to different situations (Gutierrez-Gil et al 2008). In sheep, Hazard et al (2014) found no QTL overlaps for the different behaviour traits tested. Hence, the behavioural responses in domestic sheep to social separation and exposure to humans are under polygenic influence.…”

Section: Physiology and Morphologymentioning

confidence: 52%

Early domestication? : Phenotypic alterations of Red Junglefowl selected for divergent fear of humans

Agnvall¹

2016

Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Dissertations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Till min Pärla och min Skatt, tack för att ni gör mitt liv så mycket mer, av allt. Älskar er till månen och tillbaka Foto Kenneth DanielssonAbstract Domestication is the process through which animals adapt to conditions provided by humans. The domesticated phenotype differs from wild ancestors in a number of traits relating to physiology, morphology and behaviour. One of the most striking differences is the animals' fear response towards humans, and reduced fear of humans is assumed to have been an early prerequisite for the success of domestication. The early alterations seen in the domesticated phenotype may be traits developed as a correlated selection response due to tameness rather than selected upon one by one.This thesis summarizes a project where Red Junglefowl were selected for divergent fear of humans during six generations. In every generation, fear response to human was assessed in a standardized test and, according to fear score, the animals were bred for either high fear of humans (H) or low fear of humans (L). The animals were, above that of the standardized selection test, behaviourally phenotyped in different tests in each generation mainly focusing on fear, exploration and social behaviour. In addition to behaviour, the animals were phenotyped for body weight, egg weight, metabolism, feed intake, plumage condition, blood plasma corticosterone and peripheral serotonin. After culling, vital organs and brains were harvested and weighed.In paper I, we demonstrated that the selection trait has a significant genetic heritability and is genetically correlated with other behavioural responses associated with fearfulness and exploration. In paper II, we concluded that animals from the L strain had better plumage condition, higher weight, laid larger eggs and also generated larger offspring. Furthermore, when tested in a social dominance test with a limited resource, they received less and performed more aggression regardless of whether the restricted source was edible or not. In paper III, we revealed that animals from the L strain had higher basal metabolic rate as chicks, gained more weight in relation to feed intake and were bolder in a Novel Object test. Furthermore, the L males had higher plasma levels of peripheral serotonin, but the corticosterone after a restraint stress test did not differ. In paper IV and V, we concluded the project by comparing brain and organ weights as well as behaviour of the parental generation (P0) with the fifth selected generation (S5). The absolute brain weight as well as the weight specific brain weight were larger in the animals selected on H than in the L-animals. The relative weight of telencephalon was significantly higher in H whereas relative weight of cerebellum was significantly lower. Heart, liver, spleen and testes were all relatively heavier in H animals than in L. Interestingly, the behaviours assessed in P0 and S5 seemed to be rather resilient to the selection with only small differences in S5.To summarize, the selection on divergent tameness in Red Jung...

show abstract

Identification of QTLs for behavioral reactivity to social separation and humans in sheep using the OvineSNP50 BeadChip

Cited by 23 publications

References 68 publications

Animal-Based Measures to Assess the Welfare of Extensively Managed Ewes

Animal-Based Measures to Assess the Welfare of Extensively Managed Ewes

Genetic Determinism Exists for the Global DNA Methylation Rate in Sheep

Early domestication? : Phenotypic alterations of Red Junglefowl selected for divergent fear of humans

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About