Breeding for societally important traits in pigs

Area of Science:

• Animal Breeding and Genetics
• Quantitative Genetics
• Sustainable Agriculture

Background:

• Traditional pig breeding prioritizes economic traits (production, reproduction).
• Growing societal demand for traits like animal welfare, ecological impact, and pork quality necessitates their inclusion in breeding goals.
• Quantifying the noneconomic value of these traits for breeding programs remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a retrospective selection-index method for determining appropriate weights for societally important traits in pig breeding goals.
• To provide a framework for pig breeding organizations to integrate noneconomic values into their breeding objectives.
• To develop a tool for creating more sustainable breeding goals.

Main Methods:

• Exploration of the genetic-progress space by stepwise increase of weights for societally important traits.
• Adoption of a genetic-progress scenario deemed most sustainable by the breeding organization.
• Calculation of breeding-goal weights based on the adopted scenario.
• Monetary valuation of noneconomic trait values by subtracting economic values from obtained weights.

Main Results:

• The proposed method allows for the estimation of proper breeding-goal weights for societally important traits.
• It enables the quantification of the noneconomic value of these traits in monetary units.
• The method can estimate societal costs of selecting only for economic traits and societal benefits/economic costs of selecting for noneconomic traits.

Conclusions:

• The retrospective selection-index method provides a practical approach for incorporating noneconomic values into pig breeding goals.
• This tool supports the development of sustainable breeding programs that balance economic and societal demands.
• It facilitates informed decision-making for breeding organizations aiming for broader societal acceptance and sustainability.