Genomic selection in pig breeding for improved meat quality

Abstract Text: A total of 4,576 Norsvin Landrace and 3,408 Norsvin Duroc test station boars, with records on intramuscular fat (IMF), were used for this study. A group of these animals, 1,538 and 1,014 Landrace and Duroc boars, respectively, were also genotyped as part of an ongoing breeding program. Traditional quantitative genetic analyses gave estimated heritabilities of 0.43 and 0.69 for Landrace and Duroc, respectively. With the use of these parameters, the accuracies of traditional selection and genomic selection were tested by comparing phenotype predictions with real phenotypes in a group of young selection candidates. Compared with traditional selection, the results show a large improvement in the accuracies of breeding values (from 0.36 to 0.63) with the use of genomic selection, and we conclude that the entry of genomic selection in pig breeding programs will help facilitate breeding for meat quality.

Keywords:

Meat quality

Intramuscular fat

Pig breeding

Genomic selection