Genetic and phenotypic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits in commercial crossbred pigs1

Abstract

Pork quality and carcass characteristics are now being integrated into swine breeding objectives because of their economic value. Understanding the genetic basis for these traits is necessary for this to be accomplished. The objective of this study was to estimate phenotypic and genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits in 2 Canadian swine populations. Data from a genomic selection study aimed at improving meat quality with a mating system involving hybrid Landrace × Large White and Duroc pigs were used to estimate heritabilities and phenotypic and genetic correlations among them. Data on 2,100 commercial crossbred pigs for meat quality and carcass traits were recorded with pedigrees compromising 9,439 animals over 15 generations. Significant fixed effects (company, sex, and slaughter batch), covariates (cold carcass weight and slaughter age), and random additive and common litter effects were fitted in the models. A series of pairwise bivariate analyses were implemented in ASReml to estimate phenotypic and genetic parameters. Heritability estimates (±SE) for carcass traits were moderate to high and ranged from 0.22 ± 0.08 for longissimus dorsi muscle area to 0.63 ± 0.04 for trimmed ham weight, except for firmness, which was low. Heritability estimates (±SE) for meat quality traits varied from 0.10 ± 0.04 to 0.39 ± 0.06 for the Minolta b* of ham quadriceps femoris muscle and shear force, respectively. Generally, most of the genetic correlations were significant (P < 0.05) and ranged from low (0.18 ± 0.07) to high (-0.97 ± 0.35). There were high negative genetic correlations between drip loss with pH and shear force and a positive correlation with cooking loss. Genetic correlations between carcass weight (both hot and cold) with carcass marbling were highly positive. It was concluded that selection for increasing primal and subprimal cut weights with better pork quality may be possible. Furthermore, the use of pH is confirmed as an indicator for pork water-holding capacity and cooking loss. The heritabilities of carcass and pork quality traits indicated that they can be improved using traditional breeding methods and genomic selection, respectively. The estimated genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits can be incorporated into the breeding programs that emphasize product quality in these Canadian swine populations.

Efficacy of genetic parameter estimation of pork loin quality of crossbred commercial pigs using technological quality measurements of frozen and unfrozen product

“…For meat color, L* and a* measured on fresh and frozen-thawed pork had low to moderate heritability. The heritability estimates newly calculated in this study for the five measurements on fresh meat were in agreement with those calculated in our previous study (Miar et al 2014b) and other reports (Van Wijk et al 2005;Gjerlaug-Enger et al 2010), except a slight difference for b* (0.10) and pH (0.07), which might be caused by different population composition, editing and (or) modelling, or just because this was a subset data of our previous research (Miar et al 2014b). When comparing the two paired measurements, the heritability estimate for a* on frozen-thawed samples was comparable to that on fresh samples when their standard errors (SE) were considered.…”

“…Meat quality measurements from fresh pork were first calculated and presented by Miar et al (2014b) and a subset of the data was used in this study. All phenotypic records outside the mean ± 4 standard deviations (SD) were considered as outliers (30 in total) and deleted from the data set.…”

“…The heritability estimates of meat quality measurements from fresh and frozen-thawed pork are shown in Tables 2 and 3, and those from the fresh pork were first calculated and presented by Miar et al (2014b). For meat color, L* and a* measured on fresh and frozen-thawed pork had low to moderate heritability.…”

Unravelling the genetic loci for growth and carcass traits in Chinese Bamaxiang pigs based on a 1.4 million SNP array

“…The h 2 of loin area (0.23) was slightly greater than those estimates of 0.21–0.22 in commercial breeds (Choi et al, ). The h 2 for average daily gain (0.17–0.33) and ham weight (0.29) in Bamaxiang pigs was smaller than those estimates of 0.32–0.41 (Choi et al, ) and 0.63 (Miar et al, ) in international commercial breeds (Duroc, Landrace and Large White). The h 2 for particular trait can be highly population dependent.…”

Genome-Wide Association of Myoglobin Concentrations in Pork Loins

“…Marker-assisted selection to improve meat quality traits has been beneficial to the swine industry (Miar et al, 2014), yet greater improvements could result if markers were detected for pigments associated with meat color. The objective of this study was to identify genetic markers associated with myoglobin content in porcine longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle to expand our knowledge of genetic factors controlling the color of pork.…”