Browsing by Author "Riihimäki, Anna"

The target of pork production is to produce lean meat efficiently in a sustainable way taking into account environment and ethical aspects. The most important production traits in pigs are average daily gain, feed efficiency and leanness. A lot of research is conducted related to production traits in comparison to feeding behavior traits. The objective of this study was to estimate heritability of feeding behavior traits and their genetic correlations with production traits in Finnish Landrace population. The data included feeding records of 4059 Landrace pigs measured automatically in Figen’s test station. The pigs had started their test period during 2010 - 2016. The measured traits were the number of visits per day (NVD), time spent in feeding per day (TPD), daily feed intake (DFI), time spent feeding per visit (TPV), feed intake per visit (FPV), feeding rate (FR), average daily gain (ADG), back fat thickness (BF) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Feeding behavior traits were divided into 5 periods. Heritability estimates of feeding behavior traits were moderate. The heritability estimates were 0,22-0,29 for NVD, 0,33-0,47 for TPD, 0,16-0,25 for DFI, 0,22-0,31 for TPV, 0,28-0,36 for FPV, 0,35-0,38 for FR, 0,27 for ADG, 0,22 for BF, and 0,24 for FCR. Compared to other published results heritabilities of TPD and FR were similar. However, heritabilities of other feeding behavior traits were quite low compared to published results. In addition, heritability of BF was unexpectedly low. The genetic correlations of feeding behavior traits were similar at different test periods. The highest positive genetic correlations were between traits TPV – FPV, FPV – FR, and NVD – TPD. The highest negative genetic correlations were between traits NVD – FPV, TPD – FR, and NVD – TPV. Genetic correlations between feeding behavior traits and production traits were low. Only between DFI – ADG, DFI – FCR, and FPV – FCR the genetic correlations were significant (and positive). In conclusion, heritabilities of feeding behavior traits were moderate. Because the only strong genetic correlation between feeding behavior and production traits was obtained between DFI and ADG, including feeding behavior traits in breeding programs is not necessary. However, feeding behavior data are easy to collect from the electronic feeders and the observations are reliable, thus daily feeding records can be used for monitoring animal’s health and welfare.