Genetic parameters and trends for production and reproduction traits of a Landrace herd in China

摘要

The objectives of this study were to estimate the genetic parameters and the breeding progress in a Landrace herd in China, and to predict the potential beneifts by applying new breeding technology. Hereby, the performance records from a Land-race swine herd in China, composing over 33000 pigs born between 2001 and 2013, were colected on six economicaly important traits, i.e., average daily gain between 30–100 kg (ADG), adjusted backfat thickness at 100 kg (BF), adjusted days to 30 kg (D30), adjusted days to 100 kg (D100), number born alive (NBA), and total number born (TNB). The genetic parameters were estimated by restricted maximum likelihoodvia DMU, and realized genetic trends were analyzed. Based on the real population structure and genetic parameters obtained from this herd, the potential genetic trends by applying genomic selection (GS) were predictedvia a computer simulation study. Results showed that the heritability estimates in this Landrace herd were 0.55 (0.02), 0.42 (0.01), and 0.12 (0.01), for BF, D100, and TNB, respectively. Favorable genetic trends were obtained for D100, BF, and TNB due to direct selection, for ADG and NBA due to indirect selection. Long-term selection against D100 did not improve D30, though they are highly geneticaly correlated (0.64). Appling GS in such a swine herd, the genetic gain can be increased by 25%, or even larger for traits with low heritability or individuals without phenotypes before selection. It can be concluded that conventional breeding strategy was effective in the herd studied, while applying GS is promising and hence the road ahead in swine breeding.