Genetic parameters of the piglet mortality traits stillborn, weak at birth, starvation, crushing, and miscellaneous in crossbred pigs1

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate genetic parameters for the mortality causes stillborn, weak at birth, starvation, crushing, and miscellaneous in crossbred piglets produced by crossbred dams. Data were collected in a single Danish commercial herd from October 2006 to July 2008 and consisted of 34,194 piglets (2,152 litters), which originated from 195 Danish Duroc sires and 955 crossbreds between Danish Landrace and Danish Yorkshire dams. Of the 34,194 piglets born, 11.5% were stillborn, 4.2% were crushed by the sow, 2.7% died due to starvation, 2.3% were weak at birth, and 2.2% died of miscellaneous causes before weaning. The first 4 mentioned causes were analyzed multivariately using a generalized linear mixed model with a probit link function, including the genetic effect of both sire and dam. Heritabilities based on the sire component ranged between 0.08 for stillborn and 0.21 for starvation whereas heritabilities based on the dam component ranged between 0.01 for miscellaneous and 0.24 for stillborn, indicating that reducing piglet mortality through genetic selection is possible. The expected observed responses to selection would, however, be low. The genetic correlations between mortality traits based on the sire component ranged from -0.05 between stillborn and starvation to 0.35 between stillborn and weak at birth whereas genetic correlations based on the dam component ranged from -0.11 between weak at birth and starvation to 0.76 between crushing and starvation. There seemed to be a favorable relationship between the 2 traits stillborn and weak at birth and between crushing and starvation, implying that care should be taken with correct recordings of mortality causes. The genetic correlation precision was rather low, and if nonadditive effects are not accounted for, there may be unexpected correlated responses among the different mortality causes in the crossbred mortalities.

Colostrum production of Alentejano and Large-White × Landrace sows: consumption, passive immunity and mortality of piglets

“…The 16.1% of mortality observed in LL piglets was only slightly higher than the 13.9% reported for French herds national results (IFIP-GTTT, 2013). The high mortality occurring in the first 2 days of life contributing to 75% and 56% of the total mortality of AL and LL piglets, respectively, was also observed in other studies (Marchant et al, 2000;Casellas et al, 2004;Strange et al, 2013).…”

Joint Analysis of Binomial and Continuous Traits with a Recursive Model: A Case Study Using Mortality and Litter Size of Pigs

“…The figures indicate that the BN model has a small advantage in terms of predictive ability. However, a breeding program involves a large number of traits and further work is needed, including refinements of the model to account for possible effects of the sire on mortality (Strange et al 2013), to study the feasibility of incorporating the BN model into a system that can yield routine predictions of aggregate genotypes in a computationally efficient manner.…”

Post-mortem findings and piglet mortality in relation to strategic use of straw at farrowing

“…This is within range of what others have found. Reported rates of stillbirth under commercial conditions vary between 4 and 12% (Strange et al, 2013;Vanderhaeghe et al, 2010;Cutler et al, 2006). An association between prolonged farrowing and an increased probability of stillbirth has been shown in several studies (Canario et al, 2006;Borges et al, 2005) and is explained by the greater risk of hypoxia due to occlusion or damage of the umbilical cord or placental detachment as farrowing progresses (van Dijk et al, 2006).…”