How Studying Interactions Between Animal Emotions, Cognition, and Personality Can Contribute to Improve Farm - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 96

strongly affected by their housing environment at the time of the immune
challenge ( Bolhuis et al., 2003 ).
In conclusion, there is overwhelming evidence that stable individual
characteristics exist in animals, in the strength of emotions they show and
in how they react to environmental challenges. These characteristics are influ-
enced by genetics, but also by developmental factors, pre- and post-natally. To
get animals that are easy and safe to work with and that have good welfare,
the genetic background, but also the environment of the parent generation,
must not be neglected.
A CONCEPT OF POSITIVE WELFARE BASED ON
POSITIVE EXPERIENCES
Should we adapt the environment to suit the animal or change the animal
to suit the environment? Both approaches can be helpful. On the one hand,
we know that appropriate manipulation of environmental factors can pro-
foundly change an animal's behavioral and physiological capabilities.
Indeed, good stockmanship and environmental enrichment can improve the
animals' quality of life ( Boissy et al., 2007b; Duncan, 1996 ; Fraser and
Duncan, 1998 ; Hemsworth and Coleman, 1998; Jones, 2004 ). On the other
hand, given the substantial genetic diversity within and between popula-
tions, selective breeding probably represents the quickest, most reliable
method of reducing fear and other welfare problems. The examples of her-
itabilities for fearfulness reported in the previous section suggest sensitivity
to genetic manipulation in farm animals ( Boissy et al., 2005b; Faure et al.,
2003; Rodenburg and Turner, 2012 ). In reality, an integrated approach
involving targeted breeding programs, environmental manipulation and
improved management is likely to be the most effective strategy ( Boissy
et al., 2005b; Faure and Jones, 2004; Jones, 2004 ). For instance, while
depression-like behaviors are expected after chronic stress, a significant
proportion of animals (up to a third or half of samples) are resistant and do
not develop these symptoms. Therefore, the emotional state of an animal
seems to result from both its environment (especially previous stressful
experiences) and its own individual characteristics.
We briefly report the genetic approaches for alleviating negative emo-
tions, and then we present the common strategies of enrichment to induce
positive emotions in livestock animals before introducing promising behav-
ioral strategies based on evaluative abilities of the animals to improve their
welfare and possibly their health.
Genetics and Selective Breeding for Alleviating
Negative Emotions
Farm animal welfare management generally focused on minimizing distur-
bances that generate unpleasant emotions and longer-lasting affective states.