PARTNER FEATURE ▶▶▶
Balanced breeding can enhance sustainability
In order to meet a higher level of sustainability, breeding programmes should not only focus on sow prolificacy, but also take into account societally important traits. That means elements such as environmental impact, animal welfare or resilience should be included.
BY DR MAHMOUD SHIRALI, SENIOR GENETICIST, DANISH GENETICS B
reeding programmes define the desired change in an animal population in terms of the relative impor- tance of various animal traits for livestock produc- ers. Notably, genetic selection in pigs has focused
on economically important traits, such as growth rate in fin- isher pigs and number of piglets born alive in sows, with great success. Moreover, commercial breeding programmes evolved over time to reflect demand and changes on the rela- tive value of traits in the entire pork value chain and market. In recent years, improvement of animal welfare and sustaina- bility of the pork-producing sector have received increased attention from the general public and different stakeholders of the pig industry. Therefore, balanced pig breeding pro- grammes are now including and improving relevant societal- ly important traits that show sufficient genetic variation. Those modern pig breeding programmes are already contrib- uting to improve animal welfare and to reduce the environ- mental impact of pig production by selecting more (feed- ) efficient and healthier animals. Furthermore, increased understanding of the biological back- ground of traits included in the breeding programme and technology development leads to novel options for animal selection approaches.
www.pigprogress.net/ worldofpigs
24
Improving animal welfare and health Sow performance efficiency has a substantial impact on the sustainability of pork production by reducing the number of sows in the herd and producing more output per sow. Selection for robust pigs contributes to sustainable pig pro- duction while improving animal welfare. Robust pigs are ex- pected to perform well under varying environmental condi- tions by being less susceptible to infections and production diseases, such as leg problems, and by having improved lon-
▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 1, 2021
gevity. Sow longevity, defined as lifetime productivity, is a key component for an efficient and profitable pig industry. Underlying production factors such as high annual replacing rates ranging between 40% and 50%, with a high proportion of sows having produced only one or two litters, will increase production costs, decrease the mean farm number of piglets per litter and increase the number of non-reproductive days. Those factors have unfavourable effects on sustainability due to increased feed and labour costs and reduced output. Inclu- sion of sow longevity, sow soundness or sow “stayability” in- dicator traits in pig breeding programmes has proven to be effective to produce sows that can handle different produc- tion conditions and produce an increased number of lifetime pigs produced per sow. That can be achieved by designing a selection index that does not focus only on the number of liveborn piglets but rather on a substantial consideration of survivability of the piglets. This ensures that the sustainability of pork production remains optimal and animal welfare is increased by a higher survival rate. Efforts to increase piglet survival have resulted in the inclusion of maternal genetic effects in the breeding programme such as maternal effect on daily gain from birth to weaning, maternal effect on piglet survival and maternal effect on piglet uniformity. Piglet mortality is a welfare concern as well as a cause for eco- nomic losses to pig producers. Efforts to increase piglet sur- vival have resulted in the investigation of maternal behaviour traits as well as the offspring’s behaviour traits. Studies have shown low heritability estimates for maternal behaviour traits such as sow reactions to piglets’ distress calls, sow reactions when her piglets are handled by the stockperson, savaging and crushing of piglets and sow attitudes towards people. Furthermore, a negative genetic correlation has been reported between sow reactions to piglets’ distress calls and piglet mortality and a positive genetic correlation between sow aggressive behaviour towards people and piglet mortali- ty. In addition, there are indications of a link between mater- nal stress and their offspring’s resilience to stress and diseases. Hence, it is possible to mitigate adverse effects of maternal stress in the offspring and improve survival through sow be- haviour by selecting for genes expressed in the mother leading to reduced wastage of resources, lower risk of disease and less use of antimicrobials, thereby improving sustainability. Numerous studies have shown the genetic background for
PHOTO: SIMON MEYER | DANISH GENETICS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
