Genetic and phenotypic correlations between performance traits with meat quality and carcass characteristics in commercial crossbred pigs

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 28;9(10):e110105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110105. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Genetic correlations between performance traits with meat quality and carcass traits were estimated on 6,408 commercial crossbred pigs with performance traits recorded in production systems with 2,100 of them having meat quality and carcass measurements. Significant fixed effects (company, sex and batch), covariates (birth weight, cold carcass weight, and age), random effects (additive, litter and maternal) were fitted in the statistical models. A series of pairwise bivariate analyses were implemented in ASREML to estimate heritability, phenotypic, and genetic correlations between performance traits (n = 9) with meat quality (n = 25) and carcass (n = 19) traits. The animals had a pedigree compromised of 9,439 animals over 15 generations. Performance traits had low-to-moderate heritabilities (±SE), ranged from 0.07±0.13 to 0.45±0.07 for weaning weight, and ultrasound backfat depth, respectively. Genetic correlations between performance and carcass traits were moderate to high. The results indicate that: (a) selection for birth weight may increase drip loss, lightness of longissimus dorsi, and gluteus medius muscles but may reduce fat depth; (b) selection for nursery weight can be valuable for increasing both quantity and quality traits; (c) selection for increased daily gain may increase the carcass weight and most of the primal cuts. These findings suggest that deterioration of pork quality may have occurred over many generations through the selection for less backfat thickness, and feed efficiency, but selection for growth had no adverse effects on pork quality. Low-to-moderate heritabilities for performance traits indicate that they could be improved using traditional selection or genomic selection. The estimated genetic parameters for performance, carcass and meat quality traits may be incorporated into the breeding programs that emphasize product quality in these Canadian swine populations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Breeding
  • Crosses, Genetic
  • Genetic Association Studies*
  • Meat / standards*
  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable*
  • Swine

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC): www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca; Hypor Inc.: http://www.hypor.com/; and Genesus Genetics: http://www.genesus.com/. The authors would like to extend thanks to the companies for providing the possibility and the facilities to collect the data. Except for the role of the industry staff in preparation of the manuscript as co-authors the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.