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Developmental programming, evolution, and animal welfare: A case for evolutionary veterinary science

Developmental programming, evolution, and animal welfare: A case for evolutionary veterinary science
Developmental programming, evolution, and animal welfare: A case for evolutionary veterinary science
The conditions animals experience during the early developmental stages of their lives can have critical ongoing effects on their future health, welfare, and proper development. In this paper we draw on evolutionary theory to improve our understanding of the processes of developmental programming, particularly Predictive Adaptive Responses (PAR) that serve to match offspring phenotype with predicted future environmental conditions. When these predictions fail, a mismatch occurs between offspring phenotype and the environment, which can have long-lasting health and welfare effects. Examples include metabolic diseases resulting from maternal nutrition and behavioral changes from maternal stress. An understanding of these processes and their evolutionary origins will help in identifying and providing appropriate developmental conditions to optimize offspring welfare. This serves as an example of the benefits of using evolutionary thinking within veterinary science and we suggest that in the same way that evolutionary medicine has helped our understanding of human health, the implementation of evolutionary veterinary science (EvoVetSci) could be a useful way forward for research in animal health and welfare.
1088-8705
Veit, Walter
8137e8be-a04c-41c6-979e-87fe1a4010be
Browning, Heather
8d13aa04-7648-4403-b29c-11f7674f6618
Veit, Walter
8137e8be-a04c-41c6-979e-87fe1a4010be
Browning, Heather
8d13aa04-7648-4403-b29c-11f7674f6618

Veit, Walter and Browning, Heather (2021) Developmental programming, evolution, and animal welfare: A case for evolutionary veterinary science. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. (doi:10.1080/10888705.2021.2014838).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The conditions animals experience during the early developmental stages of their lives can have critical ongoing effects on their future health, welfare, and proper development. In this paper we draw on evolutionary theory to improve our understanding of the processes of developmental programming, particularly Predictive Adaptive Responses (PAR) that serve to match offspring phenotype with predicted future environmental conditions. When these predictions fail, a mismatch occurs between offspring phenotype and the environment, which can have long-lasting health and welfare effects. Examples include metabolic diseases resulting from maternal nutrition and behavioral changes from maternal stress. An understanding of these processes and their evolutionary origins will help in identifying and providing appropriate developmental conditions to optimize offspring welfare. This serves as an example of the benefits of using evolutionary thinking within veterinary science and we suggest that in the same way that evolutionary medicine has helped our understanding of human health, the implementation of evolutionary veterinary science (EvoVetSci) could be a useful way forward for research in animal health and welfare.

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Developmental Programming Evolution and Animal Welfare A Case for Evolutionary Veterinary Science - Version of Record
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e-pub ahead of print date: 16 December 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 475429
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/475429
ISSN: 1088-8705
PURE UUID: 7eb8ca06-f0dd-43f7-acd8-74ec7892ab10
ORCID for Heather Browning: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-7052

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Date deposited: 17 Mar 2023 17:38
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:15

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Contributors

Author: Walter Veit
Author: Heather Browning ORCID iD

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