Genetic approaches to improving resilience and robustness in cattle and pigs: implications for health and sustainability

Climate change poses significant challenges to livestock production through rising temperatures, heat stress, altered disease patterns, and resource constraints. Both bovine and swine industries must rapidly enhance animal robustness to maintain productivity, health, and environmental sustainability. This review explores how modern genetic approaches can build climate-resilient and sustainable cattle and pig systems. In cattle, resilience is increasingly viewed as a breedable trait. Recent advances have defined resilience phenotypes through performance deviations under stress (e.g., milk yield, feed intake, and disease incidence). Genomic selection, reaction-norm models for genotype-by-environment interactions, “-omics” technologies now enable multi-trait selection that mitigates antagonisms between high productivity and robustness while delivering co-benefits such as improved feed efficiency and reduced methane emissions. Meanwhile, targeted gene editing offers the unique potential to modify specific loci to drive step-change improvements in key resilience traits. In pigs, robustness is framed as a system trait encompassing survivability, growth stability, leg health, and disease resilience. By integrating commercial data, digital phenotyping, and crossbred performance, breeding programmes are improving whole-system efficiency. Notable examples include genetic strategies targeting porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome resilience, where health improvements translate into measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and resource use per unit of pork produced. Life-cycle assessments confirm that genetic gains in robustness deliver cumulative environmental benefits. Despite promising advances, challenges remain in large-scale phenotyping, integration with sustainability metrics, and responsible technology deployment. Recent European Union policies (e.g., the code of good practices for Responsible and Balanced Farm Animal and Aquaculture Breeding - www.effab.info ) provide a critical framework for balanced breeding that optimises animal welfare, environmental impact, productivity, and genetic diversity. Overall, genetic improvement represents one of the most powerful and long-lasting tools for developing climate-smart livestock. Responsible application of these technologies will be essential to future-proof livestock production systems while supporting resilient global food security.