Abstract
There is a growing appreciation within the livestock industry and throughout society that animal stress is an important issue that must be addressed. With implications for animal health, well-being, and productivity, minimizing animal stress through improved animal management procedures and/or selective breeding is becoming a priority. Effective management of stress, however, depends on the ability to identify and quantify the effects of various stressors and determine if individual or combined stressors have distinct biological effects. Furthermore, it is critical to determine the duration of stress-induced biological effects if we are to understand how stress alters animal production and disease susceptibility. Common stress models used to evaluate both psychological and physical stressors in cattle are reviewed. We identify some of the major gaps in our knowledge regarding responses to specific stressors and propose more integrated methodologies and approaches to measuring these responses. These approaches are based on an increased knowledge of both the metabolic and immune effects of stress. Finally, we speculate on how these findings may impact animal agriculture, as well as the potential application of large animal models to understanding human stress.
Highlights
Defining StressEarly in the nineteenth century, Claude Bernard defined stress as a perturbation of the otherwise constant state of the “milieu interieur”. [1]
One isoform of glucocorticoid receptors, GRα has been shown to silence the expression of activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), which is a transcription factor involved in amino acid biosynthetic enzymes, indicating a significant role for glucocorticoids in regulating anabolism and catabolism [16]
As immunological responses and capabilities are strongly impacted by stress, this casts further doubt on the capacity of mouse models to accurately anticipate and reflect human responses to stress. To address these limitations of the mouse model, we suggest that greater consideration of large animal species might be of considerable benefit
Summary
In the nineteenth century, Claude Bernard defined stress as a perturbation of the otherwise constant state of the “milieu interieur”. [1]. McEwen and Goldstein considered stress as either a consciously or unconsciously sensed threat to homeostasis, which exists within the range of specific parameters [1] This definition recognizes that the homeostatic state may shift over time and vary among individuals within a population. Contributing elements to stress responses have been defined as either psychological or physical factors that are perceived by an organism in a variety of ways These factors disturb the homeostatic state, but the organism has the capacity to initiate complex and coordinated psychological and physiological responses to each stressor. These responses include the classic “fight or flight” response and the “freeze” response, which may immobilize an animal [5]. Systems and determine whether these changes reduce or eliminate the physiological effects of both acute and chronic stress
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