Background

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA, conducts research on high-priority problems facing U.S. and global food and fiber production. One of the significant mission areas is to conduct research to understand and optimize the care and well-being of production animals. Animal stress is both a societal and economic production concern. Improved states of well-being are known to be associated with better health, growth, and reproduction. Animal well-being and stress research is managed by the ARS, National Program Staff, as a coordinated research program designated National Program 105, 'Animal well-being and stress control systems'
(http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs/programs.htm?npnumber=105). Research programs within National Program 105 (NP 105) are partitioned into six components:

Specific ARS research units affiliated with National Program 105 are:

Animal Physiology Research Unit, Columbia, MO

Biological Engineering Research Unit, Clay Center, NE

Livestock Behavior Research Unit, West Lafayette, IN

Livestock Issues Research Unit, Lubbock, TX

Poultry Research Unit, Mississippi State, MS

Vision

Measures of well-being and stress will be developed and refined, to give producers and consumers the information they need to evaluate management practices and determine which techniques best assure the care and well-being of animals used for food production.

Mission

The development of scientific measures of stress and well-being and an enhanced ability to interpret such measures is crucial to the evaluation of current agricultural practices and development of improved alternatives. The research strategy will focus on indicators of animal stress and well-being that can be refined and applied to the assessment of individual management practices and development of decision support systems. Stress caused by social, psychological, nutritional, and environmental stressors and the interactions of these stressors need to be understood to limit negative impacts on care, production efficiency and well-being. Animal stress and well-being research will benefit animals, producers, and ultimately consumers, by reducing animal health-care costs and improving food production efficiencies. Achievement of these economic and societal goals will help make U.S. animal products more affordable in domestic markets and competitive in world markets.

Plan Development

A workshop on research priorities was convened on April 20, 1999, with customers, stakeholders, and research partners. Individuals in attendance worked in four species-related groups: beef, dairy, swine, and poultry. Each workgroup identified 1-3 issues related to animal well-being and stress to be given the highest research priority by ARS. All workgroups identified the need to develop measures of well-being and stress as the top priority and called for integrated, interdisciplinary research to provide a scientific basis for defining the state of well-being and criteria for improved animal care. Customers and stakeholders provided brief statements on their research priorities prior to the workshop that were included in a booklet provided to the participants.

ARS will address the consensus stakeholder/customer priorities within available in-house resources and through continuation and future development of interdisciplinary partnerships. All five research units within NP 105 are currently conducting research on measures of stress and/or well-being. Many scientists in the NP 105 research units are long-term members of the W-173 committee on Animal Stress and/or NCR-131 Committee on Animal Behavior. These committees meet annually to share research results and initiate productive collaborations. Participation of ARS scientists is encouraged to strengthen their interdisciplinary interactions. The National Program Leader for NP 105 will participate in these coordinated research committees.

Problem. Food animal production is important to United States consumers as a major source of food nutrients and important to the national economy, being valued at about $100 billion annually. Measures of animal well-being and stress are needed to give producers and consumers the information they need to evaluate management practices and determine which methods best assure the well-being and productivity of animals used for food production.

Approach. New knowledge is needed to understand well-being and stress. The new knowledge should come from research conducted in coordinated multidisciplinary studies integrating behavioral, physiological and productivity parameters and include evaluation of management methods in current and alternative systems to understand and manage well-being and stress. Research on transportation stress in relation to food safety will be conducted at two locations.

The program components, adaptation and adaptedness, social behavior and spacing, and cognition and motivation involve specialized measures or experimental approaches involving behavioral responses. These areas require emphasis because of the limited knowledge on farm animals.

Carrying-out a multidisciplinary integrated approach will contribute balanced scientific knowledge about each of the six components in this national program.

Goal. To develop scientific measures of well-being and stress to give producers and consumers better information to judge which techniques best assure the well-being and productivity of animals used for food production.

Intermediate Outcome. Integrated measures of well-being and stress provide producers and consumers some of the information they need to evaluate management systems.

Long Term Outcome. Animal production systems that minimize stress and improve care to meet the well-being needs of animals and to address the concerns of consumers and producers.

Impact. An animal production industry that is highly competitive in the global economy.

Linkages

Other ARS National Program

• Food Animal Production
• Animal Health
• Food Safety

ARS Locations for this Work

Animal Physiology Research Unit, Columbia, MO

Scientific expertise at this location includes endocrinology, neuroscience, and physiology intramurally; and immunology, engineering, nutritional management and veterinary medicine extramurally. Expertise in behavioral science will be sought from other ARS locations. Linkages exist with National Program 101 (http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov/programs/appvs.htm).

Biological Engineering Research Unit, Clay Center, NE

Scientific expertise at this location includes engineering, immunology, nutritional management, veterinary medicine, and physiology. Expertise in behavioral science will be sought from other ARS locations. Linkages exist with National Program 206 (http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov/programs/nrsas.htm).

Livestock Behavior Research Unit, West Lafayette, IN

Scientific expertise at this location includes behavioral science, immunology and neuroscience intramurally and nutritional management, endocrinology, veterinary medicine, and psychology, extramurally with Purdue University partners.

Livestock Issues Research Unit, Lubbock, TX

Scientific expertise at this location includes behavioral science, immunology, neuroscience intramurally; and neuroscience, nutritional management, endocrinology, physiology, and veterinary medicine, agricultural economic engineering, and plant and soil science, extramurally with Texas Tech partners.

Poultry Research Unit, Mississippi State, MS

Scientific expertise at this location includes physiology, nutritional management, engineering and veterinary medicine intramurally. Expertise in behavioral science will be sought from other ARS locations.

Additional Expertise Needed

A high level of collaboration among ARS locations and partners will be necessary to carry out the multi-disciplinary team approach needed to solve the identified problems. The major limitation to progress in the area of animal well-being and stress is the small number of scientists trained specifically as behavioral scientists (applied ethologists). Other disciplines should be added to the five ARS units in NP 105 to ensure that the mission of this program can be accomplished in a timely manner. ARS undertakes high-risk, national research problems which are often times outside the area of interest of our collaborators. ARS needs additional scientists in the areas of behavioral science, physiology, immunology, neuroscience and engineering to assure that ARS's mission driven research can be accomplished.