Genetic Sources of Variability in Pig Production

Increasing uniformity has important economic implications for pork production and rightly receives a lot of attention. On the other hand, a certain amount of variability is useful for different production environments and different market needs. Variability can also create opportunities for improvement if the reason for better performance or specific quality can be identified and repeated. Variability in pigs has both genetic and non-genetic sources. These include nutrition, disease challenges, production system, and social interactions to name a few. Genetics is certainly one important source of variability among them.