Genetic parameter estimation for number born alive at different parities in Landrace and Large White pigs

We estimated genetic parameters for number born alive (NBA) from the first to the seventh parities in Landrace and Large White pigs using three models. Analyzing 55,160 farrowing records for 12,677 Landrace dams and 43,839 for 10,405 Large White dams, we used a single-trait animal model to estimate the heritability of NBA at each parity and a two-trait animal model and a single-trait random regression model to estimate the genetic correlations between parities. Heritability estimates of NBA at each parity ranged from 0.08 to 0.13 for Landrace and from 0.05 to 0.16 for Large White. Estimated genetic correlations between parities in all cases were positive. Genetic correlations between the first and second parities were slightly lower than those between other neighboring parities. Genetic correlations between more distant parities tended to be lower, in some cases <0.8. The results indicate the necessity to investigate the applicability of evaluating NBA at different parities as different traits (e.g., the first and later parities), although a repeatability model might still be reasonable.