Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse, on data on purebred Yorkshire pigs in Swedish nucleus herds, the genetic correlation between teat number (both functional and non-functional) recorded at performance testing (at approx. 100 kg live weight), litter size at birth and litter weight at 3 weeks of age. Animal mixed-model analysis was applied on the data available (57,000 performance tested pigs, 10,000 1st-parity litters and 6500 2nd-parity litters). The estimated heritability for number of functional teats was 0.31, for number of non-functional teats 0.09 and for total number of teats 0.39. Number of non-functional teats was negatively genetically correlated with number of functional teats (r(G) = -0.34), and positively correlated with litter size (parity 1; +0.20) and number of stillborn piglets (parity 2; +0.34).

Keywords

Genetic correlations; teat quality; sow

Published in

Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Science
2013, Volume: 63, number: 3, pages: 121-125
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

SLU Authors

• Lundeheim, Nils

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Chalkias, Helena

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Rydhmer, Lotta

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics and Breeding


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09064702.2013.841749

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/53705