Publications by authors named "PigGen Canada"
Background: Disease resilience is the ability of an animal to maintain productive performance under disease conditions and is an important selection target. In pig breeding programs, disease resilience must be evaluated on selection candidates without exposing them to disease. To identify potential genetic indicators for disease resilience that can be measured on selection candidates, we focused on the blood transcriptome of 1594 young healthy pigs with subsequent records on disease resilience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this study was to explore plasma metabolite levels in young healthy pigs and their potential association with disease resilience and estimate genetic and phenotypic correlation with the change in lymphocyte concentration following disease challenge. Plasma samples were collected from 968 healthy nursery pigs over 15 batches at an average of 28 ± 3.23 d of age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelection for disease resilience, which refers to the ability of an animal to maintain performance when exposed to disease, can reduce the impact of infectious diseases. However, direct selection for disease resilience is challenging because nucleus herds must maintain a high health status. A possible solution is indirect selection of indicators of disease resilience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Infectious diseases significantly impact the pork industry, highlighting the need for disease resilience in pigs, which allows them to perform well despite illness.
- A study identified heritable genetic traits related to performance and disease that could be selected to enhance disease resilience in pigs through a polymicrobial disease challenge model.
- Genome-wide association studies revealed key genomic regions associated with important traits, particularly in the major histocompatibility complex region, indicating potential targets for breeding programs to improve growth and disease resistance in pigs.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to estimate the genetic factors affecting both the performance and resilience of pigs during a natural disease outbreak involving multiple infections.
- Data was collected from over 3,000 Yorkshire × Landrace pigs, analyzing various traits like growth rate, feed intake, mortality, and health treatment needs in a controlled environment with disease exposure.
- Results showed resilience traits had low heritability but strong correlations with each other, while performance traits had moderate to high heritability, indicating that genetic factors can influence how pigs grow and cope with diseases.
Disease resilience is a valuable trait to help manage infectious diseases in livestock. It is anticipated that improved disease resilience will sustainably increase production efficiency, as resilient animals maintain their performance in the face of infection. The objective of this study was to identify phenotypes related to disease resilience using complete blood count (CBC) data from a wean-to-finish natural disease challenge model, established to mimic the disease pressure caused by many common pathogens at the commercial level of pig production.
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