Genetic selection for docility: A review.

Abstract

Animaldocilityortemperamentis an importanttraitin livestock as it has influence not only on the human safety andanimal welfare but importantly also on the productivity of livestock farming enterprises.Poortemperamentin livestockhas been associatedwith reduced performance, health, and carcass quality.Docilityis thus increasingly becoming afocus ofmanystudies aiming at its inclusion inanimalbreeding programs.Most studies ondocilityand its associationwith production have shown that the trait (docility) exhibits moderate to large additive genetic variance which could beexploited in breeding programs.Docility could potentially be used as an indicator trait for economically important traitsthat are difficult to measure.Techniques for measuringdocilityare continually being refined and improved making itpossible to accurately measuredocility. Identification and selectionofanimals with atemperamentthat will improvetheir welfare and productivity within their production environment is becoming increasingly important.