Raising resilient animals for optimal welfare on tomorrow’s farms

Poor welfare can stem from a mismatch between challenges in the captive environment and those the animal, having evolved in a particular natural environment, is adapted to face. Most efforts to improve animal welfare involve reforming housing and husbandry to fit the animal. A complementary solution is to choose, or mold, the animal to better fit the environment. However, traits that are beneficial in one environment may be harmful in another, so this approach runs the risk of creating “specialist” animals, fit for only one specific environment. An alternative is to promote robust, “generalist” animals, resilient or adaptable enough to maintain good welfare in a wide variety of different environments. This is an important “future-proofing” measure, as production practices will continue to evolve in unpredictable ways, due to factors including shifting social expectations, technological developments, and climate change.

The primary goal of our ongoing pig research program is to characterize determinants and develop methods to promote robustness. Do some personality traits predispose animals to good welfare across all environments, and can they be selected for? Does juvenile play increase robustness, and can this be promoted by modifying juvenile housing? Finally, how does the social environment impact resistance to infectious disease, and can housing treatments that improve social dynamics also ameliorate health? We hope to find ways to create animals prepared to maintain good welfare on farms of the future, whatever these may resemble.

Keywords: animal welfare, resilience, robustness, pigs, animal behaviour.