In order to meet the future challenges, animal breeding should evolve towards a more sustainable model, by guaranteeing animal production, while promoting simultaneously efficient use of resources, animal health and welfare, as well as preserving genetic diversity. The aim of the project is to provide novel insights into innovative genome- and epigenome-enabled selection methods for traits related to a sustainable optimization of production (in terms of both quantity and quality), efficiency, productive longevity, fertility, resilience and welfare in chicken and pig populations.

Pigs represent a species of enormous economic importance for humans. Although the effects of the production environment on pig behavior, welfare and cognition have been investigated to some extent, the long-term effects of the production environment on pigs’ social and cognitive development remain largely unknown. The aim of this project is to combine cognitive science, epigenetics and animal behavior to assess the impact of a stimulus-poor and stimulus-rich housing environment on cognition, as well as the reversibility of detrimental effects triggered by such an environment in pigs.

In the farming industry, understanding the physiological stress responses of an animal is necessary for efficient husbandry and welfare. So far, animal welfare has been assessed only in specific time points, while assessment tools for the entire life-history of an animal are still lacking. The aim of the project is to link epigenetics and welfare research to develop advanced methods for assessing animal welfare in a life-history perspective and provide novel knowledge on the interplay between genetics, epigenetics and stress physiology in chickens and pigs.