Domestication and Animal Traits

Lecture 1: Domestication and Animal Traits

• Domestication is the process of genetically changing a population of living organisms through selective breeding that benefits humans.
• Domesticated animals include pets like cats and dogs, as well as livestock like horses and cows.

Degrees of Domestication

• Wild animals exhibit "fight or flight" responses.
• Tamed animals show dependence on humans.
• Semi-domesticated animals have a human-animal relationship.
• Domesticated animals are reliant on humans.

Common Trait Changes Due to Domestication

• Changes in tameness are linked to adrenal glands.
• Coat color changes link to melanocytes.
• Chondrocytes and odontocytes relate to reduced skull and teeth size, respectively.
• Morphological changes and floppy ears can also occur.

Belyaev's Fox Experiment

• Foxes were selected for temperament, starting with 465 individuals.
• The objective was to simulate wolf domestication into present-day dogs.
• Initial selection was based on behavior: 30% extremely reactive, 40% moderately reactive, 20% fearful, and 10% quiet and exploratory.
• Breeding criteria involved flight threshold distance.

Tameness and Hormones

• Tameness involves reduced release of stress hormones, resulting in a reduced fight-or-flight response and decreased reactivity to new situations.
• Hormones are produced by adrenal glands.
• Long-term hormones include glucocorticoids like cortisol, which regulate neonatal development duration.
• Short-term hormones include catecholamines like epinephrine and norepinephrine.
• Domestic animals exhibit a reduction in these hormones compared to wild animals.

Neural Crest Hypothesis

• Genetic changes to neural crest cells influence domestication traits.
• Domestication decreases the size of the neural crest, reducing the population of cells derived from it.
• Tameness results from reduced stress hormone synthesis, as cells producing these hormones originate from the neural crest.
• Smaller numbers of cells involved is characteristic of domestication syndrome.

Wolf Domestication

• Wolves with short flight distances took advantage of food waste from humans, gaining a competitive advantage
• Those wolves bred together, developing domestication syndrome.

Domestication Pathways

• Commensal pathway: Habituation leads to partnership then directed breeding
• Prey pathway: Prey leads to game management, then herd management, and finally directed breeding.

Lecture 2: Animal Systems and Production

Extensive vs. Intensive Animal Systems

• Extensive animal systems involve minimized capital inputs, unprocessed diets of low nutrient density and high fiber, being non-confined, and minimized handling
• Examples: Beef cattle, sheep, and goats.
• Intensive animal systems involve significant capital inputs, processed nutrient-dense diets, confinement production, and economies of scale.
• Examples: Pork, dairy, and poultry.

Sector Terms

• Cow-calf operations are primary in extensive production, using pasture and rangeland.
• Backgrounding/Stocker: Managed with forage/pasture diets and slow growth.
• Feedlot/Finishing: Intensive production uses primarily concentrated diets, sometimes with pasture in feedlots.
• Packing sector.

Animal Lifecycle Terms

• Cow: Mature female.
• Heifer: Young female.
• Bull: Sexually mature, uncastrated male.
• Steer: Castrated male before sexual maturity.
• Calf: Neonatal to 5 months old.

Pork terms

• Sow: Mature female pig.
• Gilt: Immature female pig before 2nd pregnancy
• Boar: Mature male pig
• Barrow: Castrated male pig
• Piglet: Neonatal pig before weaning
• Farrowing: Giving birth to piglets.

Swine Production in Canada

• Intensive industry with pigs typically raised in total confinement.
• Biosecurity on commercial farms is very important, with limited visitors.
• Breeding through artificial insemination, gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days.

Farrowing

• Sows are kept in individual crates.
• Average litter size is 15 piglets.
• Average birth weight is 1.2 kg.
• Colostrum intake occurs in the first 6 hours.
• Sows typically have 12 teats.

Weaning and Grow-Finish

• Weaning is abrupt, piglets are moved to a nursery.
• Piglets transition from milk to solid feed and are mixed with other piglets at 21-28 days old.
• Grow-finish phase occurs after 5 weeks in the nursery.
• Housed in large groups, diets change as pigs mature and are ready for market in 15 weeks, at 125-130 kg.

Dairy Production

• Lifecycle: Lactation cycle to lifespan to calves

Parturition and Milk Fever

• Requires that cows mobilize calcium from the skeleton
• Insufficient calcium causes muscle tremors, staggering, lying flat, heart failure and death
• Treat with: Intravenous calcium

Supply Management in Canada

• Milk production is designed to meet the demand of Canadians with limited exports and imports
• The quantity of milk required is set by each province
• Quota is the license to produce a set amount of milk.
• The national marketing agency determines production amounts and sets quotas for each province.
• Minimum prices are guaranteed to producers.
• High tariffs make imported dairy products expensive.

Importance of Colostrum

• Calves are born with no immunoglobins in their bloodstream.
• For Passive Immunity, the small intestine of the newborn can absorb these antibodies into the blood for the first 24 hours.
• Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that bind to bacteria and viruses to help prevent disease.

Lecture 3: Beef Industry and Forages

North American Beef Industry

Sectored Production: ​ Begins with cow-calf operations ​ Followed by backgrounding ​ Then feedlot ​ Ending with the packing sector

• Features over 90,000 producers
• Predominantly family-run
• Features about 15 million cattle

Forages in Cow-Calf Management

• Forages such as pasture, hay, straw, and silage are the foundation of the beef industry.
• Feed cost is of greatest variable cost in beef production
• Forages focus on providing: Energy, Protein, Minerals, Vitamins, and Water.

Canada's Traceability Program

• Animal identification- radio frequency identification tags
• Animal identification including individual and premise IDs, cattle must have IDs to leave a property.
• Includes premise identification and animal movement tracking.

Cattle Breeds

• Dominant breeds include Angus, Simmental, Hereford, Charolais, and Limousin.
• Breeds vary in colour, carcass quality, behaviour, frame size, and feed efficiency

Weaned Calf Sales

• Sold in groups at auction marts to feedlot buyers and Internet/Video sales
• Forward contracts with feedlots, delivery of calves eliminates the 'sale barn'.

Lecture 4: Poultry Terminology and Supply Management

Poultry Terminology

• Broiler: Meat chicken.
• Layer: Table egg production chicken.
• Rooster: Male chicken.
• Tom: Male turkey.
• Hen: Female turkey or chicken.

Chicken Consumption

• Supply management system - Canada produces as much chicken as is consumed.
• Family farms in Canada.
• Producers receive steady income.
• Not family owned in USA
• Many vaccines exist, however politicians sometimes restrict their usage.
• Over 1000 broilers qualify as "commercial".

Advantages of the Poultry Supply System

• Producers have steady income and no oversupply
• Producers make enough money that they can support additional welfare initiatives
• Boards have say in practices for animal welfare of birds

Disadvantages of the Poultry Supply System

• Product is more expensive for consumers and requires producers to purchase quota

Lecture 5: Horse Evolution, Domestication, and Specialization

Horse Evolution and Domestication

• The horse (Equus) evolved in North America then underwent ancestral migration to Eurasia, spreading across the Eurasian steppes
• Domestication was underway in the form of captive raising, after initial hunting for consumption.

Expansion of Horse Use

• Horses were first used for carrying and hauling.
• Later, horses were used for effective war tactics for riding
• Eventually developed into riding of horses.

Coat Colors and Disadvantages

• Colors with selective disadvantages for wild horses includes negative pleiotropic effects.
• Listed are some detrimental effects:
  • Grey: Melanomas
  • Silver: MCOA-eye disorder
  • Leopard Spotting: CSNB
  • Overo Pinto: OLWFS
  • Splashed white: Deafness
  • Overo: Deafness
  • White: Embryonic lethal
  • Roan: Embryonic lethal

Detrimental Effects of Specialization

• Breeding for small size can cause dwarfism.
• Breeding for heavily muscled quarter horses can cause periodic paralysis.
• Breeding for speed can propagate fragility.
• "Popular sire": disequilibrium between detrimental genes and performance genes

Lecture 6: Swine Production

Origin and Latin Name

• Domesticated in China around 490 B.C and England around 800 B.C
• Latin name for domestic swine: Sus scrofa domesticus.

Canadian Swine Breeds

• Yorkshire: 42% of herd
• Landrace: 32% of herd
• Duroc: 25% of herd

Swine Production System Terminology

• Swine/Pig, Pork/pig meat, Sow/mother pig, Gilt/of breading age but hasn't had piglets, Weaning/Removal of young ones from their mother, Hog/pig ready to be processed, Process harvest/slaughter for meat, Boar/adult male pig kept for breeding purposes, Farrowing/act of parturition in pigs

Pork Production in SK

• SK produces 8.5% of all pigs
• 5th largest producer in hogs

How Swine Operations are Changing

• Advances in technology and transportation
• Economies of scale

Lecture 7: Trends in Pet Ownership

Trends in Pet Ownership

• Cat ownership is greater than dog ownership
• 8.5 million cats as pets, compared to 7.9 million dogs as pets.
• Pet cat costs 2,542 dollars, compared to 2,500 + 1,000 dollars for dogs.
• Ontario has 770 pet stores in 2021 and brick-and-mortar stores are declining with an increase in online purchases.

Domestication Traits of Dogs and Cats

• Dogs started with hunter-gatherer societies and descend from unknown wolfs, started as mutual co-existence and then companionship
• Changed the way that dogs look and the ability to digest carbohydrate-rich diet through amylase enyzyme increase
• Cats are more recent, and not as dependent on or response to humans like dogs
• Domestication has not changed the way cats look and behave and they can easily revert to feral
• Diet and preference in metabolism in domestic cats is unchanged from wild cats

Benefits of Pet Ownership

• Social support.
• Companionship.
• Improved mental health.
• Motivates exercise.
• Animal assisted therapy and activities.
• Teaches empathy, social skills, and self-esteem.

Risks of Pet Ownership

• Infections, parasites.
• Allergies.
• Bites or injury.
• Financial burden.
• Psychological burden when pets die.
• Neglect of animals

Animal Assisted Activities vs. Animal Assisted Therapy

• Animal assisted therapy is part of treatment for those physically, socially, emotionally, or cognitively challenged
• Stated goals for sessions and individual treatment with detailed notes administered by trained health professionals
• Animal assisted activities are casual involving pets and people, with no specificity, normally volunteer run, and can be as long or short as you need.

Lecture 8: Dairy Cattle and Supply Management

Supply Management

• It is designed to meet the demand of Canadians and has limited exports and imports
• The quantity of milk required is set by each province
• The license to produce milk is called a quota.

Dairy Cattle Management

• Bred through artificial insemination to produce a calf every 365 days
• Calves are housed indoors and fed milk or milk replacer
• They shift to a phase of growth and breed between 13-15 months to have their first calf at 22-24 month

Key Aspects of Dairy Cattle Management

• Colostrum management and passive transfer is important
• Changes in milk yield over time
• theImportance of cow-comfort and characteristics of the mammary gland

Optimal conditions for Cows

• A great environment
• Adequate nutrition
• Calm handling

Mammary Gland and Milking

• "Take it or lose it" policy
• Frequent milking in early lactation stimulates cell development in the mammary gland
• Increased cell development has carry-over effects
• Nutrient demand increases tremendously in lactation.

Lecture 9: Indigenous Principles and Aquaculture

Indigenous Peoples of Canada

• Distinct indigenous peoples of Canada with their own culture, history, practices, and beliefs:
  • First Nations, Metis, and Inuit.

Sustainable Aquaculture Principles

Features transparency and inclusiveness in:

• First Nations
• Social responsibility
• Environmental responsibility
• Economic responsibility

Aboriginal vs Non-Aboriginal Aquaculture

• Includes unique cultural and spiritual aspects and unique connections to the land
• Includes some mistrust of conventional science
• Unique rights and special access aquatic resources, job creation, and high food prices