Large-Scale Phenotyping of Livestock Welfare in Commercial Production Systems: A New Frontier in Animal Breeding

Abstract

Genomic breeding programs have been paramount in improving the rates of genetic progress of productive efficiency traits in livestock. Such improvement has been accompanied by the intensification of production systems, use of a wider range of precision technologies in routine management practices, and high-throughput phenotyping. Simultaneously, a greater public awareness of animal welfare has influenced livestock producers to place more emphasis on welfare relative to production traits. Therefore, management practices and breeding technologies in livestock have been developed in recent years to enhance animal welfare. In particular, genomic selection can be used to improve livestock social behavior, resilience to disease and other stress factors, and ease habituation to production system changes. The main requirements for including novel behavioral and welfare traits in genomic breeding schemes are: (1) to identify traits that represent the biological mechanisms of the industry breeding goals; (2) the availability of individual phenotypic records measured on a large number of animals (ideally with genomic information); (3) the derived traits are heritable, biologically meaningful, repeatable, and (ideally) not highly correlated with other traits already included in the selection indexes; and (4) genomic information is available for a large number of individuals (or genetically close individuals) with phenotypic records. In this review, we (1) describe a potential route for development of novel welfare indicator traits (using ideal phenotypes) for both genetic and genomic selection schemes; (2) summarize key indicator variables of livestock behavior and welfare, including a detailed assessment of thermal stress in livestock; (3) describe the primary statistical and bioinformatic methods available for large-scale data analyses of animal welfare; and (4) identify major advancements, challenges, and opportunities to generate high-throughput and large-scale datasets to enable genetic and genomic selection for improved welfare in livestock. A wide variety of novel welfare indicator traits can be derived from information captured by modern technology such as sensors, automatic feeding systems, milking robots, activity monitors, video cameras, and

Using Random Regression Models to Genetically Evaluate Functional Longevity Traits in North American Angus Cattle

“…Improving beef cattle longevity will increase the overall farm profitability by both decreasing the costs associated with rearing heifers, and increasing the number of productive mature animals in the herd [ 3 , 5 ]. Moreover, longevity is an indirect indicator of animal health, resilience, and welfare [ 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Genomic analyses and biological validation of candidate genes for rectal temperature as an indicator of heat stress in Holstein cattle

“…Heat stress is a major welfare and economic constraint to the worldwide dairy cattle industry, especially as global temperatures trend upward (Das et al, 2016;Polsky and von Keyserlingk, 2017;Brito et al, 2020). For instance, heat stress can affect milk production (Carabaño et al, 2014), fertility (Parker- Gaddis et al, 2017), and health and the immune system (Bernabucci et al, 2010;Bagath et al, 2019).…”

“…The coping mechanisms to heat stress challenge and its effects on the metabolism of each animal are the result of multiple factors, including behavioral and physiological changes that the animals undergo to regulate body temperature as well as changes at the cellular level such as damage or interruption of cellular function caused by elevated body temperature (Kendall and Webster, 2009;Burfeind et al, 2012;Hansen, 2020).Therefore, when studying heat stress response, it is important to evaluate its effects in a multidimensional fashion (Hansen, 2020). Rectal temperature (RT) is the most common indicator of body temperature and has been widely used as a physiological indicator of heat stress (Godyń et al, 2019;Brito et al, 2020). Rectal temperature has been reported to have variable heritability in dairy cattle depending on the population, with estimates ranging from 0.11 to 0.17 (Mcmillan and Werf, 2007;Dikmen et al, 2012).…”

Association Analysis of Polymorphisms in the 5′ Flanking Region of the HSP70 Gene with Blood Biochemical Parameters of Lactating Holstein Cows under Heat and Cold Stress

“…Livestock experiences different stressors throughout their lives including physical, nutritional, chemical, psychological, and thermal stress [1,2]. Among them, thermal stress is the most intriguing factor influencing production, reproductive efficiency, health, and the well-being of the high-producing animals [3,4].…”

“…Within-breed genetic variation exists for thermo-tolerance and disease resistance [26,27], and thus, genetic and genomic selection for improved heat or cold resistance may increase the resilience and well-being of dairy cattle [2]. Moreover, it will have important implications in the productivity, and long-term sustainability of the dairy industry as the incidence of extreme temperatures is becoming inevitable in the majority of geographic regions around the world [28,29].…”