Newman S
Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory, ARS, Miles City, MT 59301.
J Anim Sci. 1994 Jun;72(6):1641-53. doi: 10.2527/1994.7261641x.
Domestic farm animals play an important role in meeting some basic needs of humankind, especially food and clothing. The aspects of genetic improvement programs in livestock production pertinent to animal welfare and animal well-being are reviewed. A link is made between the evolutionary processes of adaptation and domestication and animal well-being. Animal behavior is a component of all these. Thus, the genetics of behavior may provide clues to the well-being of farm animal populations, and it will also be of relevance to public opinion issues of animal welfare. Many expressions of behavior by domestic livestock may be influenced by those processes that change gene as well as genotypic frequencies such as inbreeding, drift, and artificial selection. The environment in which the individual lives will also play a role, along with the interaction between genotype and environment. Selection for or against such behaviors as aggressiveness, docility, response to stress, and certain sexual behaviors in some livestock species has often been successful. This points to the existence of additive genetic variation for behavior, and scope for the inclusion of behavioral traits into selection programs, if these measures are shown to be related to welfare. Negative relationships between behaviors associated with well-being and traits of economic importance have been reported in most livestock species. However, estimates of genetic parameters, especially genetic correlations between objective measures of well-being and production traits, are scarce. There have been no comprehensive studies of the welfare of transgenic animals reported in the scientific literature. Increased use of biotechnology in animal agriculture, coupled with greater public scrutiny of livestock industries, may precipitate decisions concerning the interface of behavior and genetics that need to be addressed before scientists can conduct appropriate experimental evaluations.
家畜在满足人类的一些基本需求，特别是食物和衣物方面发挥着重要作用。本文综述了畜牧生产中与动物福利和动物健康相关的遗传改良计划的各个方面。文中阐述了适应和驯化的进化过程与动物健康之间的联系。动物行为是所有这些方面的一个组成部分。因此，行为遗传学可能为家畜群体的健康状况提供线索，并且也与动物福利的公众舆论问题相关。家畜的许多行为表现可能受到改变基因以及基因型频率的过程的影响，如近亲繁殖、基因漂移和人工选择。个体所处的环境以及基因型与环境之间的相互作用也会发挥作用。在某些家畜品种中，针对攻击性、温顺性、应激反应和某些性行为等行为进行的选优或选劣往往是成功的。这表明行为存在加性遗传变异，并且如果这些措施被证明与福利相关，那么将行为性状纳入选择计划具有可行性。在大多数家畜品种中，都报道了与健康相关的行为和经济重要性状之间的负相关关系。然而，遗传参数的估计，尤其是健康的客观指标与生产性状之间的遗传相关性估计却很少。科学文献中尚未有关于转基因动物福利的全面研究报告。动物农业中生物技术使用的增加，再加上公众对畜牧产业的更严格审查，可能会促使做出有关行为与遗传学界面的决策，而这在科学家能够进行适当的实验评估之前就需要加以解决。
