Identifying indicators of resilience and personality in sheep (AEC16-003 and 17-015)

During life on a farm, during transport and at slaughter, farm animals are exposed to many short-term environmental situations which can negatively impact their physiological, behavioural, and emotional states resulting in reduced production, poor health and bad welfare. Resilience is the capacity of animals to cope with these challenges and return rapidly to their pre-challenge status. This project utilised sheep which had been previously identified to have high and low immune responses, and performed a range of tests to assess temperament, attention bias, coping style, spatial memory, learning and physiological stress responsiveness to identify key measures related to resilience and personality. Sheep underwent the same series of tests one year later to examine the consistency of these traits over time.

在农场养殖、运输及屠宰过程中，农场畜禽（farm animals）会暴露于多种短期环境应激情境，此类情境会对其生理、行为及情绪状态产生负面影响，进而导致生产性能下降、健康状况恶化以及福利水平降低。抗逆性（Resilience）指畜禽应对上述应激挑战，并快速恢复至应激前状态的能力。本研究选用此前已被鉴定为高、低免疫应答型的绵羊作为实验对象，通过一系列测试评估其气质类型、注意偏向、应对风格、空间记忆、学习能力与生理应激反应性，以筛选与抗逆性和性格相关的关键指标。研究团队于一年后对同一批绵羊重复开展上述系列测试，以探究这些性状随时间推移的稳定性。