Feed costs amount to approximately 70% of the total costs in pork production, and feed efficiency is, therefore, an important trait for improving pork production efficiency. Production efficiency is generally improved by selection for high lean growth rate, reduced backfat, and low feed intake. These traits have given an effective slaughter pig but may cause problems in piglet production due to...

Globally, genetic diversity of livestock populations is contracting. Knowing the true extent of the contraction is needed to develop effective conservation strategies. Although contractions of genetic diversity have been documented at the breed level, little within breed documentation has occurred. This situation is no different for US swine breeds. Therefore, the objective of this study was to...

Sow longevity influences farm economy and can be considered an important indicator of animal welfare. Body features such as leg conformation can play a key role in sow longevity, although little is known about its effect on culling decisions. Within this context, longevity data from 587 Duroc, 239 Landrace, and 217 Large White sows were analyzed with special emphasis on the effect of leg confor...

in order to reduce consumption of chemical fertilizers and in order to evaluate the effect of biofertilizers on yield and yield components of sunflower nuts (helianthus annuus l.), the research was carried out with using factorial based randomized complete block design with three replications at agriculture and natural resources researches station of khoy in 2011. the first factor was  three su...

The objective of this study was to investigate differences in the faecal microbial composition among Lantang, Bama, Erhualian, Meishan, Xiaomeishan, Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire sows and to explore the possible link of the pig breed with the gut microbial community. Among the sows, the Meishan, Landrace, Duroc, and Yorkshire sows were from the same breeding farm with the same feed. Fresh faec...

We evaluated carcass and meat quality traits of two Chinese native crossbreeds Landrace x Meishan (LM) and Duroc x (Landrace x Meishan) (DLM) and two foreign crossbreeds Duroc x (Landrace x Yorkshire) (DLY) and PIC (an imported five-way crossbreed). One hundred and twenty weaned pigs (half castrated males and half females) were reared and slaughtered at a predestinated slaughter age. The genera...

The objective of this study was to estimate direct and indirect selection potential for length of productive life and lifetime prolificacy in Finnish Large White and Landrace swine populations. To study the direct selection potential, the heritabilities of these traits were estimated. The genetic correlations of length of productive life and lifetime prolificacy with prolificacy traits and over...

Records on 361,300 Yorkshire, 154,833 Duroc, 99,311 Hampshire, and 71,097 Landrace pigs collected between 1985 and 1999 in herds on the National Swine Registry STAGES program were used to estimate additive genetic (animal), common environmental (litter) and residual variances and covariances for lean growth rate, days to 113 kg, backfat, and loineye area. Analysis was by the REMLf90 program of ...

and Implications This study was designed to examine differences in maternal behavior between two breeds, the Meishan breed from China and the Yorkshire/Landrace (YL) cross. This was a preliminary trial aimed at gathering data to appropriately design a more extensive study. Identification of maternal behavioral contributions to piglet survivability may assist in reducing production losses caused...

An association study conducted on 375 maize inbred lines indicates a strong relationship between Vgt1 polymorphisms and flowering time, extending former quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping results. Analysis of allele frequencies in a landrace collection supports a key role of Vgt1 in maize altilatitudinal adaptation.