Heritability of shoulder ulcers and genetic correlations with mean piglet weight and sow body condition

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to estimate the heritability for shoulder ulcers and the genetic correlations between shoulder ulcers, mean piglet weight and sow body condition. The analyses were based on information on 5549 Norwegian Landrace sows and their 7614 purebred litters. The genetic analysis was performed using the Gibbs sampling method. Shoulder ulcers were analyzed as a threshold trait. Sow body condition and mean piglet weight were analyzed as linear traits. The heritability of shoulder ulcers was estimated at 0.25 (s.d. 5 0.03). The heritability for sow body condition was estimated at 0.14 (s.d. 5 0.02) and that for mean piglet weight at 0.23 (s.d. 5 0.02). The genetic correlation between shoulder ulcers and sow body condition was negative (20.59, s.d. 5 0.09). The genetic correlation between shoulder ulcers and mean piglet weight was positive (0.23, s.d. 5 0.10) and the genetic correlation between sow body condition and mean piglet weight was negative (20.24, s.d. 5 0.10).

Genetic parameters for feed intake, litter weight, body condition and rebreeding success in primiparous Norwegian Landrace sows

“…The heritability estimated for LW in the present study (h 2 = 0.22, PSD = 0.05) is comparable to previously published reports about preweaning growth traits in other populations (Högberg and Rydhmer, 2000;Bergsma et al, 2008) and previous estimates from the studied Norwegian Landrace population Lundgren et al, 2012), but higher than the heritability for litter weight at 3 weeks (h 2 = 0.09), recently estimated by Gilbert et al (2012).…”

“…same population at 0.14 (Lundgren et al, 2012). In a study by ten Napel et al (1998), body condition at weaning was measured by trained technicians using a similar scale as in the present study.…”

Can a super sow be a robust sow? Consequences of litter investment in purebred and crossbred sows of different parities1

“…Shoulder lesions in lactating sows have become one of the main challenges for highly productive (i.e., high milk producing) sows producing large litters (Lundeheim et al, 2014;Fredriksen et al, 2015). More than 50% of the sows with SL are the ones with poor BC (Fredriksen et al, 2015) and the 2 traits are moderately genetically correlated at weaning (Lundgren et al, 2012). Moreover, the present study documented that sows with lower feed consumption are at higher risk of developing SL and suffer greater BC losses during lactation.…”

“…Because primiparous sows were not capable of consuming enough feed to cover litter investment and suffered greater losses of BC, it is not surprising that primiparous sows were more susceptible to SL development in our study. Previously, it has been discussed that multiparous sows were more susceptible to SL at weaning than primiparous sows, as shoulder ulcers can relapse during subsequent lactations (e.g., Herskin et al, 2010;Lundgren et al, 2012). However, our results show that primiparous sows suffered greater SL development than multiparous sows only in the NL breed and not the other breeds.…”

Does the presence of shoulder ulcers affect the behaviour of sows?

“…Although some attention have been directed at shoulder ulcers in recent years (Dahl-Pedersen et al, 2013;Herskin et al, 2011a;Jensen et al, 2011), the knowledge on its pathogenesis is still limited and the majority of scientific reports have focused on post or antemortem classification systems based on pathology (Jensen, 2009;Jensen et al, 2011Jensen et al, , 2014Lund et al, 2003), as well as identification of risk factors and possible treatment Lundgren et al, 2011;Zurbrigg, 2006). Even though scoring of the presence of shoulder ulcers are involved in assessment of sow welfare (e.g., Welfare Quality ®, 2009), to date only very limited scientific documentation concerning possible consequences of shoulder ulcers in terms of animal behaviour is available (Dahl-Pedersen et al, 2013).…”