Chances for genetic improvement of health traits in livestock

The health status of livestock in many species is unsatisfactory and hence should have a high priority with regard to animal welfare, animal health itself, economic returns for farms, and product quality. Traditionally, approaches for genetic improvement have included the recording of diseases itself in field and station tests as well as under challenge conditions. Other approaches have used auxiliary traits which includes functional conformation. Although a number of examples exist that demonstrate the use of these traditional methods, future improvements should be directed towards enhanced recording systems which in turn would also be of great aid for molecular approaches. For further improvement, multi-discipline approaches are needed which comprise the fields of classical animal breeding, animal husbandry and management systems, veterinary science, physiology, and molecular genetics.