Relations génétiques entre caractères relatifs au développement sexuel, à l’odeur de la viande, à l’étatinflammatoire et à l’agressivité chez le porc mâle entier

• Published in: 47èmes journées de la recherche porcine. 2015; 47. Journées de la recherche porcine, Paris, FRA, 2015-02-03-2015-02-04, 49-50
• Main Authors: Parois, Séverine, Prunier, Armelle, Mercat, Marie-José, Muller, Nelly, Merlot, Elodie, Larzul, Catherine
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: French
• Published: IFIP - Institut du Porc 2015

Breeding intact boars is a promising alternative to the surgical castration of piglets. Genetic selection should make it possible tosolve problems due to boar taint and aggressiveness. About 1600 Pietrain type (purebred) or Pietrain x Large White type(crossbred) boars were raised in a testing station. Blood samples were collected for measuring two sex hormones (testosterone,estradiol), and indicators of the inflammatory status (C‐reactive protein: CRP, Pig Major Acute‐Phase Protein: pigMAP, bloodformula). Animals were slaughtered nine days later, measured for boar taint compounds (androstenone, skatole) and skin lesionson carcass, an indicator of aggressiveness. For both genetic types, heritability was moderate for sex hormones (from 0.17 to 0.29)and skatole (purebred: 0.24, crossbred: 0.37), and high for androstenone (0.63 and 0.70). Genetic correlations between sexhormones and boar taint compounds were moderate to high (from 0.31 to 0.95). Heritability was moderate for CRP (0.24 and 0.46)and very low for pigMAP (0.06 and 0.05). Numbers of leucocytes had moderate to high heritabilities according to the genetic type(0.21 and 0.52). Heritability of skin lesions was moderate for both genetic types (0.31). Genetic correlations were negativebetween sex hormones and inflammatory measures (from ‐0.46 to ‐0.05), positive between testosterone and number of lesions(0.43 and 0.53), and low between androstenone and lesions (‐0.06 and ‐0.17). Therefore, it would be possible to select boars ontheir concentration in plasma sex hormones to decrease boar taint and aggressiveness, without important consequences on theinflammatory system.