The genetic connectedness between herds is an essential requirement to make robust across-herd estimation of the breeding values of the animals. In this study, genetic connectedness between herds was evaluated by a connectedness rating method. A total of 24,971 records of days to 90 kg (D90KG) of the pigs on performance testing programs collected from six herds (labeled from 'A' to 'F') of Duroc breed along with pedigree information comprising 456,697 families were used. Results showed that a total of eight boars were used for semen exchange programs among participant farms. Herds 'A' through 'E' were found strongly connected among them. But 'F' herd was genetically connected strongly only with 'A' herd. The highest average connectedness rating was 91.7% between 'A' herd and 'C' herd. The lowest average connectedness rating was 65.1% between 'D' and 'F'. The concept of a single genetic group comprising six Duroc herds studied is meaningful due to high connectedness rates among them. Therefore, with this high genetic ties between participant Duroc farms, the more accurate genetic evaluation would be possible.

This study was conducted to identify the characteristics and estimate the genetic parameters of average daily gain (ADG) and carcass traits of Hanwoo. The data used in this study were 4,681 heads which were performance-tested and 4,442 heads which were progeny-tested in test station of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. The means and standard deviations of ADG between 6~9 months (ADG:6-9), ADG between 9~12 (ADG:9-12) and ADG between 6~12 (ADG:6-12) from the performance test were 1.04 ± 0.16, 1.11 ± 0.17 and 1.07 ± 0.11, respectively. The phenotypic correlations of ADG:6-9 and ADG:9-12, ADG:6-9 and ADG:6-12, ADG:9-12 and ADG:6-12 were -0.03, 0.66 and 0.65, respectively. The phenotypic correlations of ADG:6-12 with carcass weight (CW), eye muscle area (EMA), backfat thickness (BF), and marbling score (MS) from progeny test were 0.446, 0.199, 0.0266 and 0.045, respectively. Estimated heritabilities from the pooled data were 0.251 (ADG:6-12), 0.298 (CW), 0.424 (EMA), 0.503 (BF) and 0.626 (MS), respectively. Estimated genetic correlations of ADG:6-12 with CW, EMA, BF, MS were 0.606, 0.292, -0.095 and -0.007, respectively. From these results, it could be suggested that selection for ADG significantly affects CW, EMA and BF by correlated response to selection.