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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2016, Vol. 15 Issue (05): 1069-1075    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(15)61105-4
Animal Science · Veterinary Science Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Genetic parameters and trends for production and reproduction traits of a Landrace herd in China
ZHANG Zhe, ZHANG Hao, PAN Rong-yang, WU Long, LI Ya-lan, CHEN Zan-mou, CAI Geng-yuan, LI Jia-qi, WU Zhen-fang
College of Animal Science, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry/Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, P.R.China
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Abstract      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 benefits by applying new breeding technology. Hereby, the performance records from a Landrace swine herd in China, composing over 33 000 pigs born between 2001 and 2013, were collected on six economically 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 likelihood via 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 predicted via 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 genetically 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.
Keywords:  genetic parameter        genomic selection        swine        genetic trend  
Received: 07 April 2015   Accepted:
Fund: 

This work was supported by the Earmarked Fund for the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-36), the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (863 Program, 2011AA100304), the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (2011BAD28B01), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31200925), the Guangdong Provincial Department of S&T, China (2011A020102003), and the Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou, China (201506010027).

About author:  ZHANG Zhe, Tel: +86-20-85282019, E-mail: zhezhang@scau.edu.cn; WU Zhen-fang, Tel: +86-20-85280369, E-mail: wzfemail@163.com

Cite this article: 

ZHANG Zhe, ZHANG Hao, PAN Rong-yang, WU Long, LI Ya-lan, CHEN Zan-mou, CAI Geng-yuan, LI Jia-qi, WU Zhen-fang. 2016. Genetic parameters and trends for production and reproduction traits of a Landrace herd in China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 15(05): 1069-1075.

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