Dipartimento PRIME, Università degli Studi di Foggia, via Napoli, 25, 71100 Foggia, Italy.
Physiol Behav. 2012 Jan 18;105(2):251-6. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.08.027. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
The interactions between genetic and environmental factors on the development of lamb affinity to humans was assessed on 48 animals from two breeds (Gentile di Puglia and Comisana) and two treatments (Gentled and Not Gentled) producing 4 groups (GPg, GPng, Cg, Cng, respectively). The Gentile di Puglia and Comisana gentled animals were subjected to a period of training consisting of gently handling each lamb for 5 min three times a day for the first week and then twice a week for three additional weeks. The gentling procedure included both tactile and visual/auditory interactions. At 30-32 days of age lambs were subjected to three arena tests conducted in a novel environment: i) isolation test (each animal was exposed to a novel environment, and isolated from tactile and visual contact with conspecifics for 5 min), ii) stationary human test (as previously but a human sitting in a corner of the pen), and iii) pen-mates' test (each animal was tested in the presence of 2 pen-mates whose behaviour was not recorded). During the 13 training sessions lambs exhibited an increasing number of contacts with the human and a decreasing number of bleats (P<0.001), although Gentile di Puglia lambs interacted more with the human (P<0.001) and tended to bleat less (P<0.10) than Comisana lambs. Lambs vocalised more and climbed more when tested in isolation as compared with lambs tested either with the human or with the pen-mates (P<0.01) and they vocalised more in the presence of the human than with the pen-mates (P<0.001). A higher number of contacts with the human stimulus was observed in gentled animals (P<0.05). However, differences between gentled and not gentled animals were only significant in Gentile di Puglia subjects (P<0.01). GPng lambs displayed the longest ambulatory activity during the isolation test (P<0.05) and exhibited more climbing attempts during the isolation test as compared with the human or the pen-mates' tests (P<0.001). A higher cortisol level was shown by GPng lambs in comparison with Cng subjects during the stationary human test (P<0.01), whereas no differences were detected between the two gentled groups. Gentling determined an improvement of the quality of human animal relationship in more reactive breeds such as Gentile di Puglia sheep.
评估了遗传和环境因素对羔羊对人类亲和力发展的相互作用，研究对象为来自两个品种（Gentile di Puglia 和 Comisana）和两种处理方式（Gentled 和 Not Gentled）的 48 只动物，产生了 4 组（GPg、GPng、Cg、Cng）。Gentile di Puglia 和 Comisana 被驯化的动物接受了为期一周的训练，包括每天轻柔地抚摸每只羔羊 5 分钟，共三次，然后每周两次，持续三周。驯化过程包括触觉和视觉/听觉交互。在 30-32 天大时，羔羊在一个新环境中进行了三个竞技场测试：i）隔离测试（每只动物被暴露在一个新环境中，与同物种的触觉和视觉接触隔离 5 分钟），ii）固定人类测试（如前所述，但有一个人坐在围栏的一个角落），iii）同伴测试（每只动物在 2 只同伴的存在下进行测试，其行为未被记录）。在 13 次训练过程中，羔羊与人类的接触次数增加，而咩咩叫的次数减少（P<0.001），尽管 Gentile di Puglia 羔羊与人类的互动更多（P<0.001），而且咩咩叫的次数也更少（P<0.10）。与人类或同伴测试相比，羔羊在隔离测试中发声更多，攀爬更多（P<0.01），并且在有人类的情况下发声更多（P<0.001）。与未被驯化的动物相比，被驯化的动物对人类刺激的接触次数更多（P<0.05）。然而，只有 Gentile di Puglia 动物的驯化和非驯化动物之间存在显著差异（P<0.01）。GPng 羔羊在隔离测试中表现出最长的活动距离（P<0.05），并且在隔离测试中比人类或同伴测试中表现出更多的攀爬尝试（P<0.001）。与 Cng 对照组相比，在固定人类测试中，GPng 羔羊表现出更高的皮质醇水平（P<0.01），而两组驯化组之间没有差异。在更敏感的品种（如 Gentile di Puglia 绵羊）中，驯化提高了人与动物关系的质量。
