Abstract
Genetic correlations between performance traits with meat quality and carcass traits were estimated on 6,408 commercial crossbred pigs with performance traits recorded in production systems with 2,100 of them having meat quality and carcass measurements. Significant fixed effects (company, sex and batch), covariates (birth weight, cold carcass weight, and age), random effects (additive, litter and maternal) were fitted in the statistical models. A series of pairwise bivariate analyses were implemented in ASREML to estimate heritability, phenotypic, and genetic correlations between performance traits (n = 9) with meat quality (n = 25) and carcass (n = 19) traits. The animals had a pedigree compromised of 9,439 animals over 15 generations. Performance traits had low-to-moderate heritabilities (±SE), ranged from 0.07±0.13 to 0.45±0.07 for weaning weight, and ultrasound backfat depth, respectively. Genetic correlations between performance and carcass traits were moderate to high. The results indicate that: (a) selection for birth weight may increase drip loss, lightness of longissimus dorsi, and gluteus medius muscles but may reduce fat depth; (b) selection for nursery weight can be valuable for increasing both quantity and quality traits; (c) selection for increased daily gain may increase the carcass weight and most of the primal cuts. These findings suggest that deterioration of pork quality may have occurred over many generations through the selection for less backfat thickness, and feed efficiency, but selection for growth had no adverse effects on pork quality. Low-to-moderate heritabilities for performance traits indicate that they could be improved using traditional selection or genomic selection. The estimated genetic parameters for performance, carcass and meat quality traits may be incorporated into the breeding programs that emphasize product quality in these Canadian swine populations.
Highlights
Swine breeding programs have mainly focused on production efficiency to increase the leanness of the carcasses in previous decades
Medium weight pigs at birth had a better tenderness and water holding capacity than light weight piglets but the intramuscular fat was higher in light piglets [6]. van Wijk et al [7] stated that average daily gain was unfavorably correlated with subprimal cuts and with most meat quality traits
Weaning weight had a lower heritability of 0.07 in this study. These estimates were within the range (0.00–0.74) of the heritability previously reported for growth and performance traits [13,14]
Summary
Swine breeding programs have mainly focused on production efficiency to increase the leanness of the carcasses in previous decades. This has led to dramatic improvement in production efficiency including leanness and feed efficiency owing to relatively moderate-to-high heritabilities. Genetic correlations between pork quality and carcass characteristics and other economic importance traits are, limited. Understanding of the genetic control of pork quality traits and their correlations with growth and performance traits are needed for Canadian swine populations to implement a successful breeding program that emphasizes product quality. Phenotypic and genetic correlations between meat and carcass quality traits have been reported in our previous publication [2]. This study is a further investigation focusing on genetic and phenotypic correlations between performance traits with pork and carcass quality traits
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