Equine obesity: linking predictions from evolutionary biology with the ingestive behaviour and subsequent body condition of uk horses and ponies

马肥胖：将进化生物学的预测与英国马和小马的摄入行为和随后的身体状况联系起来

• 批准号: BB/H01568X/1
• 金额: $ 9.59万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Training Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FH01568X%2F1
• 关键词: Equine; obesity; linking; predictions; evolutionary

Over the past three decades, models of foraging have yielded many insights into the functions and mechanisms governing how animals should respond to changing food availability and environmental conditions, but including social environment (where living in a group could alter an individual's chances of securing food) has presented some radically new predictions. Models [1,2] considered animals foraging in pairs that were able to assess each others' energetic reserves, and where foraging together was advantageous to individuals. The models suggested that over time, the pair's level of energy reserves should become greatly separated - where one individual has low reserves, and its colleague has high. Furthermore, predictions suggest that behaviours should become highly synchronised between pair members. Surprisingly, these robust individual differences could arise without there being any inherent difference between the pair's members, who had the same energetic requirements, and were following the same behavioural rule set (dependent upon the reserve levels of both a focal animal and its partner). Predictions were also generated about how groups of animals following these rules should behave [3], and a survey of field studies suggest that these patterns are seen in a wide variety of species [2]. These results have obvious implications for theoretical and ecological work on group living in animals, but also have relevance to the welfare and management of domesticated, socially-living animals, such as horses, cattle, and sheep. This studentship will focus on equine behaviour: unlike other species, privately-owned horses are most likely to be kept long-term in small, stable social groups, and therefore present an ideal study system for exploring the interplay between model predictions, group behaviour, and the potential welfare implications of group-housing. This studentship will explore this problem by creating and testing predictions of feeding behaviour and energy reserve allocation, based upon a solid theoretical foundation. Using these models could suggest how individual horse's fat reserves might vary across groups of different sizes, and how variation might occur between herd-mates sharing identical external conditions (food, exercise, etc.). In Bristol, the student will be trained to use these techniques to generate predictions about how horses should behave in response to novel environmental and social conditions that they would not have experienced in their evolutionary history (meaning that the rules that they would normally follow had evolved for a completely different set of environmental and social parameters). At the same time, the student will be trained by WALTHAM and Bristol in behavioural and body-condition scoring techniques, and in the use of non-invasive ultrasound techniques. The student will interact with owners to record data from horses and ponies housed under a variety of housing/grazing conditions and herd sizes, after training in experimental technique, design and data analysis. As well as ongoing modelling, the first year will involve collecting data exploring individual and group behaviour and decision-making in relation to the body condition of individuals, at differing time-scales. Building on these data, the models would be refined to explore how the differences in regimens faced by the study animals affected their energy reserves and behaviour. Furthermore, the effects of differences in energetic requirements on behaviour and condition could be explored by comparing insulin-resistant with 'normal' individuals. Throughout, the data collected would be integrated with the modelling work (which would be refined on an iterative basis to accommodate any set-backs or unforeseen effects arising from the dataset). 1. Rands et al. (2003) Nature 423:432 2. Rands et al. (2008) BMC Evol Biol 8:51 3. Rands et al. (2004) Proc R Soc B 271:2613, (2006) Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60:572

在过去的三十年里，觅食模型已经产生了许多关于动物如何应对不断变化的食物供应和环境条件的功能和机制的见解，但包括社会环境（生活在一个群体中可能会改变个体获得食物的机会）已经提出了一些全新的预测。模型[1，2]认为动物成对觅食，能够评估彼此的能量储备，并且一起觅食对个体有利。这些模型表明，随着时间的推移，两人的能量储备水平应该会大大分开-其中一个人的能量储备较低，而他的同事则很高。此外，预测表明，行为应该成为对成员之间的高度同步。令人惊讶的是，这些强大的个体差异可能会出现，而对成员之间没有任何固有的差异，他们有相同的能量需求，并遵循相同的行为规则集（取决于焦点动物及其伴侣的储备水平）。人们还预测了遵循这些规则的动物群体应该如何表现[3]，实地研究的调查表明，这些模式在各种各样的物种中都可以看到[2]。这些结果对动物群体生活的理论和生态学工作有明显的影响，但也与驯养的社会生活动物（如马、牛和羊）的福利和管理有关。这个学生将专注于马的行为：与其他物种不同，私人拥有的马最有可能长期保持在小型，稳定的社会群体中，因此为探索模型预测，群体行为和群体住房的潜在福利影响之间的相互作用提供了一个理想的研究系统。这个学生将通过创建和测试喂养行为和能量储备分配的预测来探索这个问题，基于坚实的理论基础。使用这些模型可以表明个体马的脂肪储备如何在不同大小的群体中变化，以及共享相同外部条件（食物，运动等）的马-马之间如何发生变化。在布里斯托，学生将接受培训，使用这些技术来预测马在应对新的环境和社会条件时应该如何表现，这些条件是它们在进化史上从未经历过的（这意味着它们通常遵循的规则已经进化为完全不同的环境和社会参数）。同时，学生将接受沃尔瑟姆和布里斯托的行为和身体状况评分技术以及非侵入性超声技术的培训。学生将与业主互动，以记录在各种住房/放牧条件和畜群规模下饲养的马匹和小马的数据，经过实验技术，设计和数据分析的培训。除了正在进行的建模之外，第一年将涉及收集数据，探索不同时间尺度上与个人身体状况有关的个人和群体行为以及决策。在这些数据的基础上，将对模型进行改进，以探索研究动物所面临的方案差异如何影响它们的能量储备和行为。此外，能量需求的差异对行为和状况的影响可以通过比较胰岛素抵抗与“正常”个体来探讨。在整个过程中，收集的数据将与建模工作相结合（建模工作将在迭代的基础上进行完善，以适应数据集产生的任何挫折或不可预见的影响）。1. Rands等人（2003）Nature 423：432 Rands等人（2008）BMC Evol Biol 8：51 3. Rands等人（2004）Proc R Soc B 271：2613，（2006）Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60：572