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Novel Resilience Phenotypes Using Feed Intake Data From a Natural Disease Challenge Model in Wean-to-Finish Pigs.
Austin M Putz1, John C S Harding2, Michael K Dyck3
1Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States.
Frontiers in Genetics
|January 24, 2019
Summary
Novel phenotypes derived from daily feed intake data offer new ways to measure disease resilience in pigs. These measures, including variability and off-feed days, are heritable and correlate with reduced mortality and treatment rates.
Area of Science:
- Animal Science
- Genetics
- Animal Husbandry
Background:
- Disease resilience is crucial in commercial pig farming due to high disease pressure.
- Feed intake (FI) is a sensitive indicator of animal health, decreasing when pigs are ill.
- Novel phenotypes are needed to accurately assess and select for disease resilience.
Purpose of the Study:
- To extract and evaluate novel phenotypes for disease resilience from daily feed intake data in growing pigs.
- To assess the heritability and genetic correlations of these novel phenotypes with disease incidence and production traits.
Main Methods:
- Utilized daily feed intake and feeder duration data from 1,341 crossbred pigs under a natural disease challenge.
- Extracted four phenotypes: root mean square error for FI and duration (RMSEFI, RMSEDUR), and proportion of off-feed days (QRFI, QRDUR).
- Calculated heritability and genetic correlations with mortality, treatment rates, and production traits.
Main Results:
- Heritability estimates for the novel phenotypes ranged from 0.15 to 0.26.
- Genetic correlations between QR measures and mortality/treatment rates were strong (0.37–0.85).
- RMSE measures showed favorable genetic correlations with production traits, such as finishing ADG.
Conclusions:
- Daily variations in feed intake and feeder duration provide heritable measures of general resilience in pigs.
- These novel phenotypes can be utilized for genetic selection to improve disease resilience in swine populations.
- The findings support the use of feed intake-based phenotypes for enhancing animal health and welfare in challenging environments.
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