title: Review: Towards the agroecological management of ruminants, pigs and poultry through the development of sustainable breeding programmes: I-selection goals and criteria.
abstract: Agroecology uses natural processes and local resources rather than chemical inputs to ensure production while limiting the environmental footprint of livestock and crop production systems. Selecting to achieve a maximization of target production criteria has long proved detrimental to fitness traits. However, since the 1990s, developments in animal breeding have also focussed on animal robustness by balancing production and functional traits within overall breeding goals. We discuss here how an agroecological perspective should further shift breeding goals towards functional traits rather than production traits. Breeding for robustness aims to promote individual adaptive capacities by considering diverse selection criteria which include reproduction, animal health and welfare, and adaptation to rough feed resources, a warm climate or fluctuating environmental conditions. It requires the consideration of genotype×environment interactions in the prediction of breeding values. Animal performance must be evaluated in low-input systems in order to select those animals that are adapted to limiting conditions, including feed and water availability, climate variations and diseases. Finally, we argue that there is no single agroecological animal type, but animals with a variety of profiles that can meet the expectations of agroecology. The standardization of both animals and breeding conditions indeed appears contradictory to the agroecological paradigm that calls for an adaptation of animals to local opportunities and constraints in weakly artificialized systems tied to their physical environment.
authors.affiliation: 1GABI,INRA,AgroParisTech,Université Paris-Saclay,78350 Jouy-en-Josas,France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Phocas
authors.affiliation: 2INRA,Oniris,LUNAM Université,UMR1300 BioEpAR,CS40706,44307 Nantes,France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belloc
authors.affiliation: 3IFIP-Institut du Porc,La Motte au Vicomte,35650 Le Rheu,France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bidanel
authors.affiliation: 4PEGASE,INRA,AgroCampus,35590 Saint Gilles,France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Delaby
authors.affiliation: 4PEGASE,INRA,AgroCampus,35590 Saint Gilles,France.
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Dourmad
authors.affiliation: 5INRA,UMR1213 Herbivores,Theix,63122 Saint Genès-Champanelle,France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.affiliation: 2INRA,Oniris,LUNAM Université,UMR1300 BioEpAR,CS40706,44307 Nantes,France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ezanno
authors.affiliation: 6GenPhySE,INRA,INPT,Université de Toulouse,INP-ENSAT,INP-ENVT,31326 Castanet-Tolosan,France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fortun-Lamothe
authors.affiliation: 7IHAP,INRA,INPT,Université de Toulouse,INP- ENVT,31076 Toulouse,France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Foucras
authors.affiliation: 8Institut de l'Elevage,149 rue de Bercy,75595 Paris,France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Frappat
authors.affiliation: 9INRA,UMR868,Systèmes d'Elevage Méditerranées et Tropicaux (SELMET),Montpellier 34060,France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: González-García
authors.affiliation: 6GenPhySE,INRA,INPT,Université de Toulouse,INP-ENSAT,INP-ENVT,31326 Castanet-Tolosan,France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hazard
authors.affiliation: 6GenPhySE,INRA,INPT,Université de Toulouse,INP-ENSAT,INP-ENVT,31326 Castanet-Tolosan,France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Larzul
authors.affiliation: 10Institut Technique de l'Aviculture,23 rue Baldassini,69 364 Lyon cedex 07,France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lubac
authors.affiliation: 11URA,INRA,37380 Nouzilly,France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mignon-Grasteau
authors.affiliation: 6GenPhySE,INRA,INPT,Université de Toulouse,INP-ENSAT,INP-ENVT,31326 Castanet-Tolosan,France.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: 1GABI,INRA,AgroParisTech,Université Paris-Saclay,78350 Jouy-en-Josas,France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tixier-Boichard
authors.affiliation: 8Institut de l'Elevage,149 rue de Bercy,75595 Paris,France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brochard
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000235:genetics; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding / Q000379:methods*; D004463:Ecology; D004777:Environment; D006040:Goals; D058751:Livestock / Q000502:physiology*; D011200:Poultry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D012418:Ruminants / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: agroecology; genotype by environment interaction; livestock; low-input system; organic farming