Selected to resist diseases

摘要

A side-effect of current selection methods may be that some pigs are less tolerant of a health challenge, but there are ways to reverse this tendency. As an industry, we should be re-examining the role of genetics in the control of disease on commercial pig units. The need to select pigs to be more resistant has never been greater. One reason is that the last 5 years have seen an increase in disease or in its outcomes of mortality and mortality. There are also signs that the selection programmes used in genetic improvement may have made some of today's genotypes less able to tolerate a challenge to their health.