Phenotypic and genetic variation in longevity of Polish Landrace sows

The influence of some production traits on the longevity of Polish Landrace sows was evaluated using survival analysis. Estimates of genetic parameters were obtained from the sire and animal components in linear and survival methodologies. Comparison between survival and linear models was based on heritabilities and ranking of estimated breeding values of sires. The same data set, 13,031 sows, was used for both methodologies, even in the presence of censored observations. The effects of herd*year and year*season of the first farrowing had the largest influence on the risk of culling of sows. Sows born in spring season (March-May) had a 24% (p < 0.001) lower hazard for removal than those born in winter (December-February). The age at first farrowing had a small but significant effect on culling: the hazard regression coefficient for this trait was 0.002 per day. Sows that had more piglets born alive and fewer stillborn in the first litter had a decreased risk of being culled. Within a contemporary group, slower growing gilts had decreased removal risk. The relative risk ratios show a marginal decreased rate of culling for sows with backfat thickness between 9.5 and 11 mm compared to the leaner sows. Loin depth had no effect on sow longevity. Heritability estimates ranged from 0.09 to 0.38 depending on the model and type of analysis. In survival analysis, all heritabilities for longevity were higher when analysed with sire models (0.21 and 0.38) compared to animal models (0.09 and 0.16). The use of animal or sire models in the linear analysis gave similar heritability estimates (0.12 and 0.10). Correlations between breeding values for sires were moderate and high, with absolute values from 0.51 to 0.99, depending on the model fitted and methodology. A stronger correlations within methodologies (0.83-0.99) than within models with different methodologies (0.51-0.63) were obtained.