Projects per year
Abstract
Early life experiences can have profound long-term, and sometimes transgenerational, effects on individual phenotypes. However, there is a relative paucity of knowledge about effects on pain sensitivity, even though these may impact on an individual's health andwelfare, particularly in farm animals exposed to painful husbandry procedures. Here, we tested in sheep whether neonatal painful and non-painful challenges can alter pain sensitivity in adult life, and also in the next generation. Ewes exposed to tail-docking or a simulated mild infection (lipopolysaccharide (LPS)) on days 3-4 of life showed higher levels of pain-related behaviour when giving birth as adults compared with control animals. LPS-treated ewes also gave birth to lambs who showed decreased pain sensitivity in standardized tests during days 2-3 of life. Our results demonstrate long-term and trans-generational effects of neonatal experience on pain responses in a commercially important species and suggest that variations in early life management can have important implications for animal health and welfare.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 20140273 |
Journal | Biology Letters |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 1 Jul 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Jul 2014 |
Keywords
- Animal welfare
- Early life experience
- Pain
- Sheep
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Long-term and trans-generational effects of neonatal experience on sheep behaviour'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
ADVANCING ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE
Mendl, M. T. (Principal Investigator)
1/10/05 → 1/04/11
Project: Research
Datasets
-
Data from: Long-term and trans-generational effects of neonatal experience on sheep behaviour
Mendl, M. (Contributor), Clark, C. (Contributor), Murrell, J. (Contributor), Fernyhough, M. (Contributor) & O'Rourke, T. (Contributor), Dryad, 2 Jun 2014
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.83rv1, http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.83rv1
Dataset
Profiles
-
Professor Michael T Mendl
- Bristol Veterinary School - Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare
- Animal Welfare and Behaviour
- Bristol Neuroscience
Person: Academic , Member