Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-2l2gl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-27T07:24:55.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genetics of leg weakness in performance-tested boars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

A. J. Webb ,
W. S. Russell  and
D. I. Sales
A. J. Webb
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
W. S. Russell
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
D. I. Sales
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
Get access

Abstract

Genetic relationships among leg and performance traits were estimated for 23 975 Large White and Landrace boars fed twice daily to appetite from 27 to 91 kg live weight at Meat and Livestock Commission testing stations between 1966 and 1972. For each boar, an overall leg score was derived as the sum of scores for 19 individual leg traits categorized as ‘absent’ (0), ‘slight’ (1) or ‘severe’ (2) at 91 kg. Heritabilities of leg score were 017 ± 0·03 in Large White and 0·19 ± 0·04 in Landrace. Genetic correlations with a visual ‘leg action’ score on a scale from 1 to 5 averaged 0·93 ± 0·02 over breeds. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between leg scores on the same boars at 27 and 91 kg averaged 0·50 ± 0·17 and 0·15 ± 0·01 respectively.

Both breeds showed significant adverse genetic correlations ranging from 0·20 ± 0·10 to 0·40 ± 0·08 between leg score and boar ultrasonic backfat. From slaughtered littermates, leg scores showed favourable genetic correlations with eye-muscle area (0·30 ± 0·10) and killing-out proportion (0·35 ± 011) in Large White and unfavourable correlations with carcass length (0·31 ± 0·10), lean content (0·30 ± 0·14) and backfat (0·33 ± 0·11) in Landrace. There were no associations with growth rate, feed efficiency or the performance index on which boars are selected. The study indicates that leg condition and fatness are adversely genetically related, but that selection on the present national performance index would not be expected to cause a rapid decline in leg condition. Culling on leg score would be expected to reduce the frequency of leg weakness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 117 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bereskin, B. 1979. Genetic aspects of feet and legs soundness in swine. J. Anim. Sci. 48:1322–1328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, E. P. 1970. Selind: a Fortran computer program for genetic selection indexes. An Foras Talúntais, Dublin. (Mimeograph).Google Scholar
Cunningham, E. P., Moen, R. A. and Gjedrem, T. 1970. Restriction of selection indexes. Biometrics 26: 67–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cuthbertson, A. 1968. PIDA dissection techniques. Proc. Symp. Meth. Carcass Evaluation, Eur. Ass. Anim. Prod., Dublin. (Mimeograph).Google Scholar
Drewry, K. J. 1979. Production traits and visual scores of tested boars. J. Anim. Sci. 48: 723–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falconer, D. S. 1963. Quantitative inheritance. In Methodology in Mammalian Genetics (ed. Burdette, W. J.), pp. 193–216. Holden-Day, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Fredeen, H. T. and Sather, A. P. 1978. Joint damage in pigs reared under confinement. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 58: 759–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grøndalen, T. 1974. Osteochondrosis, arthrosis and leg weakness in pigs. Nord. VetMed. 26:534–537.Google ScholarPubMed
Grøndalen, T. and Vangen, O. 1974. Osteochondrosis and arthrosis in pigs. V. A comparison of the incidence in three different lines of the Norwegian Landrace breed. Ada. vet. scand. 15: 61–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, K. and Nicholas, F. W. 1972. The sampling variance of the correlation coefficients estimated from two-fold nested and offspring-parent regression analyses. Theor. appl. Genet. 42: 97–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McPhee, C. P. and Laws, L. 1976. An analysis of leg abnormalities of boars in the Queensland performance testing station. Aust. vet. J. 52: 123–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meat and Livestock Commission. 1970. Pig Improvement. Report of a Scientific Study Group. Meat and Livestock Com-mission, Milton Keynes.Google Scholar
Nakano, T., Aherne, F. X. and Thompson, J. R. 1979. Effects of feed restriction, sex and diethylstilbestrol on the occurrence of joint lesions with some histological and biochemical studies of the articular cartilage of growing-finishing swine. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 59:491–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakano, T., Aherne, F. X. and Thompson, J. R. 1981. Leg weakness and osteochondrosis in pigs. Pig News Inf. 2:29–34.Google Scholar
Olausson, A. and Ronningen, K. 1975. Estimation of genetic parameters for threshold characters. Ada Agric. scand. 25: 201–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pig Industry Development Authority. 1966. Combined testing. PIDA Report DA 188. Meat and Livestock Commission, Milton Keynes.Google Scholar
Reiland, S. 1978. The effect of decreased growth rate on frequency and severity of osteochondrosis in pigs. Ada radioi, Suppl. 358: 107–122.Google ScholarPubMed
Reiland, S. and Anderson, K. 1979. Cross breeding experiments with swine. Influence of different combinations of breed on frequency and severity of osteochondrosis. Ada. Agric. scand., Suppl. 21:486–489.Google Scholar
Reiland, S., Ordell, N., Lundeheim, N. and Olsson, S. E. 1978. Heredity of osteochondrosis, body constitution and leg weakness in the pig. A correlative investigation using progeny testing. Ada. radioi., Suppl. 358: 123–137.Google ScholarPubMed
Robertson, A. and Lerner, I. M. 1949. The heritability of all-or-none traits: viability of poultry. Genetics, Princeton 34: 395–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, W. S. 1978. Compreg User's Guide (Basic Fortran version). ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Smith, C. 1966. A note on the heritability of leg weakness scores in pigs. Anim. Prod. 8:345–348.Google Scholar
Steane, D. E. 1972. Meat and Livestock Commission breeding schemes. Proc. 14th British Poultry Breeders' Roundtable, Birmingham. (Mimeograph).Google Scholar
Teuscher, T., Weniger, J. H., Steinhauf, D. and Pfleiderer, U.-E. 1973. [Relationships between leg weakness and growth and carcass traits in pigs.] Z. Tierzücht. ZüchtBiol. 89: 335–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unshelm, J. 1977. Breeding aspects of leg weakness in pigs. Proc. 3rd int. Conf. Production Disease in Farm Animals. Wageningen, Netherlands, pp. 222–225. Pudoc, Wageningen.Google Scholar
White, J. 1966. PIDA's accreditation scheme. In Breeding for Pig Improvement. Proc. PIDA Conf, Brighton. April 1966.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. D., Christian, L. L. and Schneider, J. F. 1980. The effects of sire soundness classification and feed restriction on performance and leg scores of pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 51: Suppl. 1: 132. (Abstr.).Google Scholar