[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 1759-1767, January 1, 2012]

Stress and its impact on farm animals

Balvinder Kumar1, Anju Manuja1, Palok Aich2

1National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar (Haryana) 125001, India, 2School of Biological Sciences, NISER, Bhubaneswar 751005, Odisha, India

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Impact of stress
3.1. Growth and production
3.2. Animal reproduction
3.3. Disease susceptibility
4. Indicators of stress
4.1. Behavioral changes
4.2. Hormonal indicators
4.3. Oxidative stress biomarkers
4.3.1. Quantification of oxidants and antioxidants
4.3.2. Estimation of the antioxidant enzymes and redox molecules
4.3.3. Measurement of oxidative damage4.4 .Immunological markers
4.5 .Genomic and Proteomic markers
5. Conclusions
6. References

1. ABSTRACT

This article presents a brief overview of stress and its impact on growth, production, reproduction and disease susceptibility in farm animals. A single measure of stress might not be a reliable indicator and it is usually more informative to combine multiple indicators of stress to assess animal welfare. Popular measures of stress such as alterations in hormonal profiles can be complemented with behavioral and immunological changes. Traditional approaches are insufficient to unravel the role of large number of genes and interconnected genetic pathways leading to multiple responses to stresses. Modern genomic and proteomics methodologies used in identifying the biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of stress response have also been described briefly. With a better understanding of the basic biology, altered physiological processes and the genes/proteins involved in stress adaptability, it would be possible to develop methodologies for selection of animals with better performance and devise strategies for animal welfare.