Swine

Genome-wide Association Studies of Feeding Behaviour Traits in Canadian Duroc Pigs

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Abstract

Pig feeding behaviour, such as the number of visits to the feeder per day (NVD) and total time spent eating per day (TPD) provides valuable information for improving feeding strategies, productivity, and animal welfare, as variations in these traits reflect feed efficiency and health status. This study aims to perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genes linked with NVD and TPD in Canadian purebred Duroc pigs. Phenotypic data were collected using electronic automatic Feed Intake Recording Equipment (FIRE) feeders, where the resulting deregressed estimated breeding value was used as a pseudo phenotype. Animal genotypes were obtained from different SNP panels that were imputed to the Affymetrix PigGen Canada 60K panel v2.0 using FImpute 3.0 software. GWAS was conducted using both Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (GBLUP) mixed model and Bayesian B (BayesB) model. The final GWAS dataset comprised of 38,121 SNPs, with phenotypic records available for 8,860 animals for NVD and 8,861 for TPD. False Discovery Rate with a level of 0.01 was used to determine the adjusted significance thresholds of p Sus scrofa (SSC) chromosomes 2, 3 and 4, through GBLUP. BayesB identified 21 significantly associated SNP windows with four overlapping significant SNPs on SSC 2 (0.069-0.159 Mb). Among the 55 annotated genes associated with NVD, the genes DRD4 and NGF emerged as potential candidate genes. These genes have been previously reported being linked to feed intake, feeding preference, and saliva production in humans and mice. GO terms for NVD included transcription factor binding, cellular anatomical entity, and biological regulation with the addition of BMP10 and HRAS being involved in the TGF-β signaling pathway. This pathway was previously implicated in obesity in humans and mice, while also being associated with production traits such as average daily gain in pigs. This overlap may suggest a link to feeding behaviour and production efficiency. For TPD, seven significant SNPs were identified on SSC 1, 6, and 14 using GBLUP, while BayesB identified 31 significantly associated SNP windows with two overlapping SNPs on SSC 14 (132.65-132.66Mb). Among the 20 annotated genes for TPD, GPR26 is a notable candidate for its role in the regulation of emotions and energy homeostasis. The GO terms results were similar between TPD and NVD, however no biological pathways associated with TPD were identified. Overall, these findings highlight key genetic regions, candidate genes and biological pathways associated with feeding behaviour traits providing valuable insights into the internal mechanisms underlying these traits.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Kim, B., Do, D., Jafarikia, M., Tulpan, D., Adewole, D., Manafiazar, G., Plastow, G., Sullivan, B., Holl, J. & Miar, Y., (2026) “Genome-wide Association Studies of Feeding Behaviour Traits in Canadian Duroc Pigs”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2280080. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23439

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