Operationalising social competence and estimating its genetic and genomic basis to improve the welfare of pigs

Lead Research Organisation: Scotland's Rural College
Department Name: Research

Abstract

Summary
Globally one billion pigs are slaughtered annually and most experience reduced welfare from harmful social behaviours (e.g. 10% of pigs gain more than 100 scratches from fighting and tail biting can cause tail amputation and spinal abscesses). Management solutions to these behaviours are costly which limits their implementation. Harmful social behaviours are one of the most persistent and routine challenges to pig welfare. However, pigs differ in the amount of harmful behaviour they give and receive. There is a genetic contribution to this variation and breeding against expression of harmful behaviours could greatly improve welfare and productivity. However, breeding on isolated harmful behavioural traits is inefficient as it could worsen other traits. It also fails to account for the potentially major role that positive social interactions may play in functional social relationships that has so far largely been ignored. This project takes a new approach by exploring the potential to breed for overall social competence.

In behavioural ecology, social competence is a higher level trait that emerges from the combination of social skills and behaviours that improve fitness (i.e. survival and reproductive success). A socially competent animal is therefore one whose combined social behaviour maximizes its fitness. Crucially, the concept allows positive and negative forms of behaviour to affect overall social competence. Additionally, it is more than simply a list of isolated behaviours, but instead accounts for the relationships between behavioural traits to consider their combined effect on fitness. There is evidence that social competence is under natural selection, in addition to those individual behaviours that comprise it. This project makes a novel application of the social competence concept to managed animals. It will test two hypotheses that (i) social behavioural traits can be integrated to define emergent social competence identifiable by its effects on welfare and (ii) that social competence is under genetic control that can be exploited in animal breeding. Our aim is to both create new basic knowledge and to practically equip the pig breeding industry with a way to define, measure and breed for pigs with an overall social ability that has evidenced benefits for welfare. PIC is the largest pig breeder in the world and a partner in this project which will ensure rapid commercial translation of the results.

Objective 1 on SRUC's pig research farm will maximise likely variation in social competence by giving half of the pigs increased social experience before weaning. Next we will house pigs in contrasting environments and measure a broad range of social behaviours and welfare outcomes. Statistical modelling will describe how social behaviours combine to explain maximum variation in welfare outcomes and hence which suites of behaviours define social competence. Objective 2 will occur at the SRUC unit and a PIC breeding farm which differ in environments but will use the same sires. The social behaviours shown in Objective 1 to constitute social competence will be recorded. This will quantify (i) the genetic determination to social competence, (ii) the effect of the environment on expression of genetic predisposition, and (iii) the economic outcomes of breeding for enhanced social competence.

Social competence has been poorly characterised in any species and we expect our novel use of the concept to be of broad interest. It will enhance understanding of how behaviours interact and the role of positive social behaviours in welfare, of which very little is known. The potential to breed for desirable combinations of behaviours, including pro-social ones, has never been studied. Equipping industry with the ability to breed for a trait that efficiently combines the interactive effects of several social behaviours and that demonstrably improves welfare could benefit the majority of commercially produced pigs.

Technical Summary

Technical summary
Negative social behaviours harm pig welfare and productivity, whilst positive social behaviours have largely unknown benefits for welfare. Improving pig behaviour through management change is costly. Where studied, social behaviours are heritable and some correlate. Breeding for improved behaviour has much potential to improve welfare but selection on isolated traits fails to account for correlated effects on other behaviour and performance traits, has unknown effects on welfare and has not been implemented. We hypothesise the existence of a higher level social competence phenotype quantifiable as a unitary score. In wild populations, social competence subsumes behaviours that benefit fitness and is under natural selection. In Objective 1 we will operationalise social competence by identifying how behaviours combine across social contexts to benefit welfare. Here we will stimulate diversity in social cognitive and behaviour development; record behaviour in a range of functionally and commercially relevant social contexts and physical environments; assess welfare outcomes and identify the combined suite of behavioural expression that explains maximum variance in welfare. Hypothesis 2 is that social competence is under genetic influence. Objective 2 will estimate genetic parameters for the social competence score (or an abridged version that is robust across environments) and explore its genetic architecture using GWAS, gene co-association, network and pathway analysis and its genetic correlation to performance traits. The largest pig breeding company (PIC) in the world is a partner. The project will provide new basic understanding of how social behaviours interact (including positive ones), how they combine to effect welfare and how this integrative phenotype is genetically determined. Practically it will equip breeders with the tools to select on social behaviour for the first time with knowledge of the effects on welfare and performance.

Planned Impact

Impact summary

Who will benefit from this research?
Managed animals: Social behaviour can have major impacts on welfare in the pig industry globally (and other sectors) and addressing this problem will be of benefit to individual animals.

Pig producers: Social behaviour can reduce productivity. Breeding for improved social behaviour will benefit economic sustainability.

Welfare accreditation and regulatory bodies: The findings will help deliver the requirements of welfare accreditation schemes, codes and regulations.

Research staff: The post-doctoral researcher and technicians will gain valuable transferable skills from the project and direct contact with industry.

Wider public: Consumers are increasingly aware of animal welfare problems associated with the housing and management of animals in intensive agriculture.

How will they benefit from this research?
Managed animals: The work addresses fundamental knowledge gaps in understanding how social behaviours combine to impact welfare and the biological regulation of overall social competence. Remarkably little is known about how expression of social behaviours in different contexts interact and even less is understood about the role of positive social behaviours in functional social relationships. These are major oversights given how important social behaviour is in driving animal welfare. We expect to provide the fundamental and applied insight to allow future selective breeding on an integrative social competence phenotype (see PIC Letter of Support). PIC is the leading pig genetics company operating in 40 countries. Even if implementation is limited to PIC, it would still benefit a significant share of commercial pigs across the globe.

Pig producers: Poor social behaviour causes injury, poor growth, reduced food conversion efficiency, immunosuppression, risk of infection and, in sows, compromised foetal implantation. These are not only welfare concerns but represent a significant economic burden in an industry with low and volatile profit margins but that is regionally important to the rural economy. Breeding for improved social behaviour will cumulatively and permanently enhance the economic performance of the industry at minimal implementation cost for producers. It will also confirm whether on-farm alterations to the pre-weaning social and post-weaning physical environment can enhance social competence.

Welfare accreditation and regulatory schemes: Farm and abattoir accreditation schemes that certify welfare standards measure outcomes of behavioural interactions as a key component (e.g. Red Tractor, RSPCA Assured, all major retailer codes). The Defra Codes of Practice on Welfare of Pigs and domestic and EU legislation also require actions to be taken to minimise damaging social interactions. No auditing scheme, code or directive provides adequate advice on the actions that can best minimise harmful interactions. The impact of such schemes will be strengthened by our findings, providing advice on how social behaviour can be improved through social and physical enrichment.

Research staff: Will gain skills in data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation and oral communication through presentations to a variety of audiences across the disciplines of applied ethology, animal welfare science, genetics and behavioural ecology. Benefits will also flow from direct contact with PIC, part of Genus plc which invests more than £40m per annum in R&D. Career development will benefit from being directly exposed to this environment. Also, SRUC is part of the Easter Bush Research Consortium, one of the largest collections of bioscience researchers globally, and staff will be based within the Roslin Institute Building which provides the ideal opportunity for networking.

Wider public: Our work will have quantified benefits for welfare which will be of interest to citizens concerned with animal welfare in intensive agriculture.
 
Description Discussion with Defra on feasibility of including breed choice as a means to improve social behaviour in the Payment by Results scheme
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Outcome was that Defra moved away from including this option in the menu of actions which would attract payment to farmers. The evidence base is currently inadequate to support selection of one line or breed over another as a way to reduce social behavioural problems. Had Defra included this as a paid option in the scheme at this time it would have made no difference to animal behaviour and been a poor use of money.
 
Description International Partnering Awards Plus : AI for Bioscience: AI-PigNet: The AI of social interactions for next gen smart animal breeding.
Amount £312,407 (GBP)
Organisation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2024 
End 10/2025
 
Description New social phenotypes from automated computer vision systems for reducing aggression in pigs through selective breeding
Amount £24,972 (GBP)
Organisation Animal Welfare Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 10/2023
 
Description The importance of social relationships and social bonds for animals' behavioural expression, health and fitness
Amount £323,595 (GBP)
Funding ID 500162, 2020-12-12 13:21:51 
Organisation National Science Centre, Poland 
Sector Public
Country Poland
Start 06/2021 
End 08/2024
 
Description Collaboration with Arhus University on organic pig breeding 
Organisation Aarhus University
Country Denmark 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We were approached to contribute to the writing of a successful grant submission to the Danish government based on our existing work on phenotyping social behaviour in pigs, and exploring the impact of complex social traits on animal welfare and their genetic determination. The project will develop new behavioural phenotypes for organic pig breeding, demonstrate their association with positive welfare and estimate their genetic basis. Our role in delivering the project is to advise on behavioural phenotyping in large throughput commercial environments and robust methods of assessing social behaviour.
Collaborator Contribution Partners led grant writing and will lead project delivery. We will be co-authors on resulting papers led by Aarhus.
Impact No outputs yet. Interdisciplinary: animal breeding, applied ethology, animal welfare science
Start Year 2023
 
Description Collaboration with Polish Academy of Sciences on benefits of affiliative interactions 
Organisation Polish Academy of Sciences
Country Poland 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution SRUC will host a co-supervised PhD student and post-doc whose studies will add value to our BBSRC grant
Collaborator Contribution Overall project leadership of this Polish government funded study. Primary supervision of PhD student and post-doc who will align with and add value to BBSRC work.
Impact Successful joint grant application to Polish National Science Centre with associated co-supervised PhD student and post-doc to study the welfare and fitness benefits of positive forms of social interaction.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Advice on genetic determination of social behaviour to pig industry 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Advice to 6 German pig farmers and veterinarians operating high-genetic merit farms but experiencing social behavioural problems about the heritability of social behaviours, genetic links to productivity and efficient on-farm behavioural scoring methods.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Advice to Defra on genetic basis to social behaviour in pigs 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with Defra at their request to provide advice on potential to improve social behaviour through selective breeding, particularly with regard to the application of precision breeding methodologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Invited talk on pig social behaviour at Pig Veterinary Society annual meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited talk (x2) on social behaviour in pigs to the Pig Veterinary Society which is the professional body for practicing pig vets in the UK.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Organisation of Animal Welfare Research Network workshop on 'Harnessing social network analysis to benefit animal welfare' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Main organiser of a workshop attended by 110 academics to prioritise use of social network analysis for hypothesis testing in the applied ethology and animal welfare field, including two talks on aggressive behaviour of pigs stemming from BBSRC funded work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://awrn.co.uk/event/harnessing-social-network-analysis-to-benefit-animal-welfare-science/
 
Description Podcasts for The Squeal on impact of nutrition and breeding on pig social behaviour 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact 3 editions of The Squeal podcast focusing on nutritional and genetic drivers of social behaviour in pigs. Covered the concept of social competence and our work on characterising and breeding for this new emergent phenotype and work on understanding the determination of contest skill.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-squeal-0144-nutrition-and-behavior-part-3/id1392449994?i=1...
 
Description Press release and subsequent media coverage for initiation of project on social competence 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A press release announced the initiation of the project which led to substantial uptake in the farming and technical press both nationally and internationally in print and online formats. Examples include Farmer's Weekly, Farmer's Guardian, National Hog Farmer, PigWorld, The PigSite. Also covered by newspapers e.g. Daily Record, Courier, Scottish Sun
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
URL https://www.sruc.ac.uk/all-news/project-to-reproduce-sociable-pigs/
 
Description Talk on use of behavioural ecology theory in the improvement of animal welfare at SRUC Animal Welfare day 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Talk given at SRUC Animal Welfare day attended by a mixed audience of >100 delegates. Talk covered use of theory from behavioural ecology to improve animal welfare, focussing on social behaviour as a case study.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Visit to experimental facility by delegates from 3 Indian vet schools 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Visit to experimental facilities to discuss data collection methods on social behavioural phenotypes of pigs used on our projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023