Joe Cassady North Carolina State University

Publish Date: June 26, 2006

North Carolina State University Swine Genetics Research from 2004-2005. Improvements in product quality, production efficiency, and health are key to the continued success of pork production in the United States. Genetic progress is made primarily through intense selection within specialized nucleus populations and purebred Duroc, Hampshire, Landrace, and Yorkshire pigs are the foundation for most nucleus populations. Genomic tools are expected to play a pivotal role in improving efficiency of pork production through genetic selection, however, most genomic tools currently available have been optimized for use in crossbred, not purebred, populations. In many cases these crossbred resource populations include breeds of pigs not currently being used by the US pork industry. Genetic markers have been made publicly available; however, application of these markers in purebred industry populations has been limited.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

The importance of decreasing costs of production increases as the swine industry becomes more competitive. Costs of production can be decreased through an organized selection program focused on genetic improvement in economic traits. The most competitive producers will use a swine-breeding program, which minimizes cost of production and maximizes return on investment. A clear understanding of genetic principles will aid producers in making selection decisions. This publication provides information about breeding values, heritabilities, and genetic correlations and how to use them in genetic improvement programs.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

Seedstock producers require sound selection programs to ensure genetic progress for their customers. This fact sheet will aid seedstock producers in determining their selection objective(s) and how to make selection and culling decisions while managing risk. The concepts of performance testing, expected progeny differences (EPDs), accuracies and selection indexes will also be briefly reviewed. However, this is not a comprehensive publication on genetic improvement.