Selection for Favorable Health Traits: A Potential Approach to Cope with Diseases in Farm Animals

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The losses caused by the outbreak of diseases are disastrous for the animal farming industries. There is an urgent need for an efficient, economical, and permanent disease control method to cope with the adverse effects of diseases in farm animals. In this review, we have proposed that genetic/genomic selection for animals with favorable health traits provide potential methods to eliminate the adverse influences of diseases in farm animals. It is undeniable that the traditional methods for disease control (e.g., vaccination, treatment, and eradication strategy) and several other rising disease control and detection methods (e.g., genome editing, biosensor, and probiotics) are contributing to the prevention of diseases from farm animals, curing infected animals, and detecting sick individuals; however, the limitations and deficiencies of these methods cannot be ignored. Although genetic/genomic selection solutions are facing some challenges, the developments of selection-associated techniques (e.g., high throughput phenotyping and sequencing, and generation of big data) and the advantages of selection over the other disease control methods can provide animal farming industries the ability to cope with the issues caused by diseases through breeding for health traits. ABSTRACT: Disease is a global problem for animal farming industries causing tremendous economic losses (>USD 220 billion over the last decade) and serious animal welfare issues. The limitations and deficiencies of current non-selection disease control methods (e.g., vaccination, treatment, eradication strategy, genome editing, and probiotics) make it difficult to effectively, economically, and permanently eliminate the adverse influences of disease in the farm animals. These limitations and deficiencies drive animal breeders to be more concerned and committed to dealing with health problems in farm animals by selecting animals with favorable health traits. Both genetic selection and genomic selection contribute to improving the health of farm animals by selecting certain health traits (e.g., disease tolerance, disease resistance, and immune response), although both of them face some challenges. The objective of this review was to comprehensively review the potential of selecting health traits in coping with issues caused by diseases in farm animals. Within this review, we highlighted that selecting health traits can be applied as a method of disease control to help animal agriculture industries to cope with the adverse influences caused by diseases in farm animals. Certainly, the genetic/genomic selection solution cannot solve all the disease problems in farm animals. Therefore, management, vaccination, culling, medical treatment, and other measures must accompany selection solution to reduce the adverse impact of farm animal diseases on profitability and animal welfare.