Abstract
Animal temperament and individual animal personalities in combination with an animal’s ability to cope with stressful situations have been studied in the past. There are clear differences between cattle breeds in urinary catecholamine concentration. Individual differences in behaviour exist in a large number of species and breeds within species. This review gives an overview of the involvement of catecholamines in the expression of stress in animals. Domestication, the heritability of stress and terms currently used in animal personality research are discussed. This includes animals used for production. The aim of this review is to consolidate and present current knowledge on the function of an activated catecholamine system and to question whether behavioural changes of animals are tending towards increased aggressiveness or towards improved coping mechanisms. Keywords: Animal welfare, domestication, fear, personality, stress
Highlights
In the past, selection of animals in the livestock industry relied heavily on certain production traits.More recently, temperament has been considered to a greater extent in calculating breeding indexes
It seems that animal temperament, the way in which an animal expresses fear, and individual animal personalities are not clearly defined, which leads to confusion in interpretation
This review gives an overview of the involvement of catecholamines in the expression of stress in animals, and the heritability of catecholamine synthesis, and how it relates to domestication
Summary
Selection of animals in the livestock industry relied heavily on certain production traits.More recently, temperament has been considered to a greater extent in calculating breeding indexes. In pigs and in cattle, aggressive conduct towards the handler is often related to increased maternal behaviour (Haskell et al, 2014), which is a positive trait in mothering ability. Research on animal stress and temperament is aimed at improvement in animal welfare (Disanto et al, 2014), in production potential (Burdick et al, 2010) and in product quality (Grandin, 2009; Muchenje et al, 2009). It seems that animal temperament, the way in which an animal expresses fear, and individual animal personalities are not clearly defined, which leads to confusion in interpretation. Terms that are currently used in animal personality research are discussed
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