Estimation & Prediction

Strategies for genomic prediction of a sow retention trait in a multibreed pig population using single-step GBLUP

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Abstract

Commercial sow traits are often measured and selected for in purebred nucleus. However, due to the high sow replacement rates at the nucleus level, purebred nucleus sows are unable to fully express traits that are measured later in life. This limitation makes genetic improvement of later in life traits more challenging in nucleus populations. To address this challenge, it is possible to utilize data on crossbred sows that express later in life traits; however, pedigreed crossbred sows with nucleus purebred founding populations would be needed to estimate genetic predictions for pureline selection programs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of multibreed genomic predictions for a crossbred sow retention trait using single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP). For this trial, sow retention phenotypic data from 30,000 pedigreed F1 sows were recorded from five different commercial sow farms. Pedigrees traced back to two Yorkshire and Landrace nucleus pure breed lines. Variance components were estimated on a linear scale using Gibbs sampling, and ssGBLUP genomic evaluations were performed using four scenarios involving individual breed pedigrees, two-breed pedigree, as well as two-breed pedigree with Unknown parent groups (UPGs) or Metafounders (MF). Variance components were not done with MF scenario because the multi-breed pedigree variances are scaled to MF approach inside ssGBLUP. Single breed genetic evaluations were contrasted with multi-breed, with different scenarios being compared using a linear regression method for accuracy and bias. Differences in heritability estimates were not significant for sow retention among the three scenarios, with heritability ranging from 0.06 - 0.08. Validation analyses indicated that the MF approach provides more accurate genomic predictions than the single breed approaches when combining purebred and crossbred data.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Walugembe, M., Diaz, I., Bhatia, V., Cross, A., Hidalgo, J., Lourenco, D., Rathje, T. & Borg, R., (2026) “Strategies for genomic prediction of a sow retention trait in a multibreed pig population using single-step GBLUP”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286963. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24180

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