1. No category

Breeding a better pig in a changing global
market
Dr Jan ten Napel
18th March, 2015
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Introduction
 Commercial pig production is changing worldwide
 A genetic programme is a design tool to change
characteristics in a population
 Objective
● Overview of what is currently being done to breed
pigs that are suitable for the production systems
and conditions of future generations
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Global developments in pig production
 Economy
● Scale enlargement
● Rapid expansion in Russia, China and Brazil
● Country-specific in EU, but decreasing
● Concentration (BE, DE, FR, NL, PT, ...)
● Abandonment (DK, ES, IT, UK, ...)
● Re-structuring (CR,PL)
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Global developments in pig production
 Markets
● Increase in niche markets
● Organic production
● Local produce
● Low-cost production of commodity
 Society
● Concerns about public health: use of antibiotics
● Concerns about animal welfare: tail docking,
castration
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Global developments in pig production
 Pig breeding and genetics
● Consolidation through mergers and take-overs
● Increasing scale of business
● Globally operating
● Introduction of expensive techniques, such as
large-scale genotyping of the whole genome
● So fewer and larger breeding organisations serve a
wider range of markets worldwide
● Trade will be increasingly with grandparent stock
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breeding for the future
 Five generations of pigs is seven years in practice
 What should be changed through genetic selection?
● Better health of pigs
● Better resource efficiency
● Maintain a reasonable profitability
● More acceptable to society and consumers
● All of this in a wider range of production systems
and markets in the world
 Focus of current research
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breeding for better health
 A healthy pig
● Does not get clinical symptoms for pathogens that
are common in the herd
● Deals with an infection with minimal loss of
production
 Breeding for healthy pigs
● Creates a good starting position
● Needs the right management to become effective
● Difficult in practice, but not impossible
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Study of Herreiro et al. 2014 on litter size
 There is genetic variation in ability to maintain
productivity in harsh environments
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breeding for better resource efficiency
 Minimal wastage (loss of animals, loss of production)
● Viability of pigs
● Mothering ability
● Predictability of production
● Positive social interactions
 Ability to utilise locally available feed stuff
● Availability of high quality protein (or lack of it)
 Increased productivity
● Improved efficiency per kg product
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Genetic correlations between growth rate
in different group sizes in the same pen
 Growth rate with competition (groups of 16) and without
competition (groups of 13) are different traits
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breeding for acceptable pork production
 No need to castrate – breeding for a low boar taint
● Boar taint is caused by skatole and androstenone
● Some boars have a reduced clearance of skatole if
androstenone in the liver increases
● Strongly heritable
● Requires a different way to select against boar taint
than often suggested
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Crossbred progeny of high and low boartaint sires
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breeding for a reasonable profitability
 Anticipate on changing consumer preferences
● Maximise carcass revenue
 Minimise cost of production
● Reduce the need for individual management of
sows through breeding
● Predictability models
● Improve productivity in diverse and dynamic
conditions
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Improving productivity
 It is a pattern, not an incident: +0.2 pigs born per litter
in the Netherlands
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
New tools for genetic improvement
 Genomic selection changes the common practice in
animal breeding
● Utilising detailed DNA information to estimate
genetic merit
● It means reliable breeding values already at birth
● Helpful for traits expressed in one sex or late in life
● Application across breeds and crosses
● Research: new knowledge, new tools
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Breed4Food
 Public-private partnership
● Four Dutch-based animal breeding companies
● Wageningen UR
 Three major research areas
● Exploiting DNA information
● Enabling new breeding goal traits
● Adding value to the chain
 Aim: enhance genetic improvement for a sustainable and
profitable livestock sector, meeting societal challenges
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Conclusions
 Dutch pig breeding companies focus on breeding pigs
that are able to produce in a wide range of climates and
production conditions
 Pigs from such a genetic programme should adapt
without problems and be productive in Spanish
conditions
 Current research focuses on all main aspects of
sustainability and acceptability to society and consumers
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre
Dutch genetics
Breeding for
sustainable pig
production – now and
in the future
Animal Breeding &
Genomics Centre