Indirect Genetic Effects and Housing Conditions in Relation to Aggressive Behaviour in Pigs

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 6; p. e65136
• Main Authors: Camerlink, Irene, Turner, Simon P., Bijma, Piter, Bolhuis, J. Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06.06.2013; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Aggressive behavior; Aggressiveness; Agriculture; Animal experimentation; Animal sciences; animal-welfare; Animals; Aquaculture; Behavior; Behavior, Animal; Biology; Bites and Stings - genetics; Bites and Stings - psychology; Biting; Breeding of animals; breeding programs; cognitive bias; Enrichment; Environment; environmental enrichment; Farming; Female; Fighting; finishing pigs; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genetic effects; Genetics; Genomics; Group dynamics; growing pigs; heritable variation; Hogs; Housing; individual coping characteristics; Lesions; Livestock; Livestock housing; Male; Offspring; Phenotype; Physiology; Pigs; Skin; Skin diseases; Social conditions; social stress; Swine; Swine - genetics; Swine - psychology; variance-components; Netherlands

Indirect Genetic Effects (IGEs), also known as associative effects, are the heritable effects that an individual has on the phenotype of its social partners. Selection for IGEs has been proposed as a method to reduce harmful behaviours, in particular aggression, in livestock and aquaculture. The mec...