Genomic selection in commercial pig breeding

Abstract

Leading pig breeding companies have implemented single-step evaluation for genomic selection. Overall, this increases EBV accuracies by half. Further improvement requires focus on trait- and line-specific QTLs, exploitation of crossbred performance for non-additive genetic effects, and training for hard-to-measure traits. The multi-breeding-company multi-line crossbred pig production structure limits very high accuracies. Increased genotyping and phenotyping will lead to improved training data and may increase accuracies by two-thirds rather than half. Novel technologies will allow for genotyping all selection candidates, reducing the generation interval and emphasizing the need for inbreeding control, more efficient breeding structures, and higher selection intensities.