• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1610-1615
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• 2001

Three studies were conducted to determine the effect of sex on pre- and post-weaning performance of pigs. These studies were conducted in response to observations that female pigs appear to grow faster than male pigs after weaning. In addition, female pigs have been found to grow faster than male pigs when supplied with supplemental milk before weaning. The aims of the present work were to further characterise the ontogeny of sex differences growth of nursing and growing pigs. In the first study, piglets sucking 32 sows were crossfostered to produce litters of 10 boars (n=9), 10 gilts (n=l 1) or 5 boars and 5 gilts (n=12). Liveweight of the sucking pigs was then measured weekly until weaning at 4 weeks of age. In the second study, 80 boars and 80 gilts were weaned at 26 days of age and growth performance measured until 21 days post-weaning. In the third experiment, 40 boars and 40 gilts were weaned into groups of 5 pigs at either 17 or 25 days of age and pigs were weighed until they were approximately 90 kg liveweight. All-boar litters grew more slowly than the all-gilt and mixed litters such that by 14 days of age the all-boar litters were 10% lighter than the all-gilt or mixed litters (39 vs. 43.8 kg, p=0.050). The proportional difference in litter weight appeared to be maintained at 21 days of age (53.9 vs. 59.4 kg, p=0.063) but was diminished by 28 days of age (66.5 vs. 70.8 kg, p=0.28). In the second study, gilts grew more quickly than boars over the first 7 and 21 days post-weaning and as a consequence were 10% heavier than boars at 21 days after weaning (13.7 vs 12.48 kg, p=0.001). In the third study, gilts grew more quickly than boars in the immediate 7 days post-weaning (40 vs. 5 g/day, p=0.014) whereas from 7 until 35 days post-weaning there was no significant difference in growth rate (381 vs. 360 g/day, p=0.19). Gilts also grew more quickly than boars over the 14 days after being moved into the grower (631 vs. 570 g/day, p=0.013) and finisher (749 vs. 688 g/day, p=0.038) sheds. However, these differences were not maintained over the entire period in each shed. These data support the hypotheses that gilts handle the stresses of weaning and other transitions better than boars.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2003

The present study was undertaken to find relationships of plasma insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-II concentrations to litter size and lactation performance. Sixty pure-bred Landrace and Yorkshire pigs having similar farrowing weeks which had been selected from a large number of pregnant gilts and sows were divided into low- (<${\mu}$－0.5SD) and high-litter size (>${\mu}$+0.5 SD) lines under a 2 (breed)${\times}$2 (line) factorial arrange of treatments. After adjusting the litter size to nine piglets per sow at farrowing, total litter weight was measured at three weeks postpartum at weaning as an index of milk yield. Blood samples were obtained from the jugular vein at day (d)-90 pregnancy (Px) and at d-15 postpartum. The litter size or the number of piglets born during the present experiment and the average litter size during the entire parities up to the present one were greater in the high-line than in the low-line by 3.7 and 2.4 piglets, respectively (P<0.01); effect of the breed on litter size was not significant. Plasma IGF-II concentration at d-90 Px was greater in the high-line than in the low-line. Litter size and d-90 Px IGF-I concentration were negatively correlated in Landrace (r=－0.46; P<0.05) and tended to be negatively correlated in Yorkshire (r=－0.31; P=0.09), which resulted in a significant negative correlation between these two variables in total animals (r=－0.35; P<0.01). Litter weight at weaning was not different between the two breeds or lines. Relationships between the litter weight and IGF concentration were not consistent across the breed ${\times}$ physiological stage combinations. Results suggest that d-90 Px IGF concentrations may be indicative of the litter size at impending farrowing.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1224-1232
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• 2020

Objective: The QingYu pig is well known for its excellent meat quality attributes in Sichuan province, China. In order to improve its production efficiency, the determination of genetic factors contributing to quantifiable economic traits of livestock is important. Moreover, the cross-breeding of QingYu pigs with western breeds possessing strong growth attributes is an efficient way to improve the performance of this breed. Methods: Here, the genetic parameters of several important reproductive traits of QingYu pigs were estimated, include total number born (TNB), number born alive, litter birth weight, individual birth weight, number of piglets weaned, litter weaning weight, and individual weaning weight. The data was analyzed using the ASReml 3.0 software (NSW Inc., Sydney, Australia). Furthermore, the effects of crossing Berkshire with QingYu (BQ) pigs on carcass and meat quality traits, as well as the effects of slaughter weight on carcass and meat quality of BQ were characterized. Results: QingYu pigs exhibited superior reproductive traits. The TNB available to QingYu pigs was more than 8 per parity. The observed repeatability of the reproductive traits of the QingYu pigs was between 0.10 and 0.23. The significantly correlated genetic and phenotypic of reproduction traits were consistent. Interestingly, the BQ pigs exhibited improved carcass quality, with a significant increase in loin muscle area, lean percentage and reduction in sebum percentage. As a result, BQ had higher L_45min, lower cooking scores, and lower drip loss. In addition, the loin muscle area, body length, and sebum percentage were significantly higher in 90 and 100 kg animals. Cooking loss showed a significant increase at 80 kg, and marbling increased significantly from 90 kg. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that QingYu pigs exhibit excellent reproductive properties and heritability of these traits. Crossing with Berkshire is an efficient strategy to improve the carcass and meat quality of QingYu pigs for commercial operations. Furthermore, it appears as though the optimal slaughter weight of BQ pigs is at approximately 90 kg.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1479-1488
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• 2022

Objective: This work was to determine coat inheritance and evaluate production performance for crossbred pigs from Berkshire×Chenghua (BC) compared with Chinese indigenous Chenghua (CH) pigs. Methods: The coat color phenotypes were recorded for more than 16,000 pigs, and the genotypes of melanocortin 1 receptor (MCIR) gene were identified by sequencing. The reproductive performance of 927 crossbred BC F4 gilts and 320 purebred CH gilts was recorded. Sixty pigs of each breed were randomly selected at approximately 60 days of age to determine growth performance during fattening period, which lasted for 150 days for BC pigs and 240 days for CH pigs. At the end of the fattening period, 30 pigs of each breed were slaughtered to determine carcass composition and meat quality. Results: The coat color of BC pigs exhibits a "dominant black" hereditary pattern, and all piglets derived from boars or sows genotyped E^D1 E^D1 homozygous for MC1R gene showed a uniform black coat phenotype. The BC F4 gilts displayed a good reproductive performance, showing a higher litter and tear size and were heavier at farrowing litter and at weaning litter than the CH gilts, but they reached puberty later than the CH gilts. BC F4 pigs exhibited improved growth and carcass characteristics with a higher average daily live weight gain, lower feed-to-gain ratio, and higher carcass lean meat rate than CH pigs. Like CH pigs, BC F4 pigs produced superior meat-quality characteristics, showing ideal pH and meat-color values, high intramuscular fat content and water-holding capacity, and acceptable muscle-fiber parameters. C18:1, C16:0, C18:0, and C18:2 were the main fatty acids in M. longissimus lumborum in the two breeds, and a remarkably high polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio of ~0.39 was observed in the BC F4 pigs. Conclusion: The BC F4 pigs exhibit a uniform black coat pattern and acceptable total production performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.1019-1023
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• 2001

An on-farm trial was conducted in temperature-controlled lactation rooms at a commercial pig farm to investigate the efficacy of broadcasting sow suckling grunts from day 4 of lactation, on increasing piglet growth to weaning. In the Broadcast treatment, sows and litters were exposed to a 3-min broadcast from loud-speakers every 42 min. The Control treatment was not exposed to the broadcast. All sows and litters had similar husbandry and piglets were provided with creep feed on the floor twice daily. In each of the three replicates in time, the Broadcast and Control treatments were allocated to different lactation rooms at random and there were 12 sows and litters per treatment per replicate. A total of four identical lactation rooms were available for the trial, each containing 28 conventional sow and litter crates with piglet heater in the creep area. A non-trial room separated the two treatment rooms in each replicate to minimise the chance that the broadcast grunt stimulation was audible to the Control treatment litters. Five "normal and average-looking" piglets from the trial litters were weighed twice, 7 d apart. The cohort of five piglets was identified by ear-tags and formed the experimental unit for the statistical analysis. The average (${\pm}SD$) age of piglets at initial weighing was 7.7(${\pm}2.22$) days. For each litter, mean piglet live weight at day 14 of lactation was estimated by linear regression of the two weights recorded seven days apart, when on average, the Broadcast treatment had been exposed to the stimulation for 10 days. Piglets in the Broadcast treatment were heavier (p<0.01) at day 14 of lactation compared to Control treatment (4.24 and 3.92 kg, respectively) and tended to have a greater average daily weight gain over the 7-d period (245 and 228 g/day, respectively; p<0.08). The results suggest piglet growth was improved by about 8% in response to the regular, timed broadcast of sow suckling grunts in the lactation shed. The independent contributions of milk and creep feed to the improved growth remain to be determined.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

Salmon oil (SO) could be used as a great source of ω-3 fatty acids in pig diet. The purpose of the study was to investigate the SO effect on production performance of sows and their offspring. 48 lactating sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) from Dankook University experimental farm were used in this study. Sows were conceived using either guided natural mating or by artificial insemination. Pregnancy diagnosis was confirmed by ultrasonography on day 25 after mating. Sows and their offspring were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 treatments. Treatments included: 1), control (CON); 2), control + SO 0.5% (CS). The inclusion of SO did not affect (p > 0.05) the litter size throughout the experiment. No difference (p > 0.05) was observed on the average daily feed intake (ADFI), chest circumference, estrus interval and sow backfat thickness between CON and SO treatments. Dietary SO supplemented diet reduced (p < 0.05) body weight loss during lactation compared with control treatment. Pigs fed SO supplemented diet did not affect (p > 0.05) the fecal scores during lactation compared with those fed control treatments. Sows fed SO supplemented diet led to a higher (p < 0.05) initial weight, weaning weight and average daily gain of piglets than those fed control diets. No difference (p > 0.05) was observed on piglet survival and fecal scores throughout the experiment. Inclusion of SO could reduce the body weight loss of sows and improves piglet growth during lactation, indicating SO has beneficial effects for pigs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-63
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• 1981

The results of a crossbreeding experiment with a total of 315 litters and 325 pigs of Berkshires, Hampshires, Durocs, Landraces, Large Whites, eight different two-breed crosses and twelve different three-breed crosses, produced at Livestock Experiment Station from 1975 through 1979, are summarized as follows. 1. Number born alive per litter was largest in the D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating, followed by the D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ mating, and smallest in the Hampshires. The pigs in the 3rd-6th parities had larger litter size at birth than those in other parities. 2. Birth weight of pig was heaviest in L♂${\times}$Lw♀ mating and lightest in the Large White. The total litter weight at birth was heaviest in the D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating, followed by D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ and Lw♂${\times}$L♀ matings, and was smaller in Hampshires and Birkshires. 3. Litter size at weaning was largest in the D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating, followed by D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ and Lw♂${\times}$L♀ matings, and was smaller in Durocs and Hampshires. The pigs in the 3rd-6th parities had larger litter size at weaning than those in other parities. 4. The total litter weight at weaning was heaviest in the D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating, followed by H♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$♀ and Lw♂${\times}$L♀ matings, and was lighter in Durocs and Hampshires. The weaning weight of pig was largest in D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating and lightest in L♂${\times}$H♀ mating. 5. Survival rate at weaning was highest in L♂${\times}$Lw♀ mating, followed by D♂${\times}$(L♂${\times}$H♀) $F_1$ ♀ and D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating, and was lowest in Durocs. 6. The three-breed cross from D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ mating had the highest average gain and lowest feed requirement per unit gain, followed by the D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ and H♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ matings. The Birkshires and Landraces ranked lowest among the 25 mating groups compared for both of the traits. Males had higher average daily gain than females by about 0.06kg and had lower feed requirement by about 0.14. 7. The three-breed crosses from D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀, D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ and H♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ matings reached 90kg body weight at younger age than the other groups. The D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀ group reached 90kg at younger age than the Landrace by 39 days. 8. The dressing percentage and lean meat percentage tended to be higher in H♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$ ♀, H♂${\times}$L♀ and L♂${\times}$B♀ matings compared to the other mating groups. The loin-eye area was largest in the Lw♂${\times}$L♀ mating and smallest in the B♂${\times}$L♀ mating. Males had higher dressing percentage, higher lean meat percentage and lion-eye area than females. The backfat was thinnest in purebred Hampshire and was thickest in B♂${\times}$L♀ mating. 9. The results obtained in this study suggest that the two-breed cross from Lw♂${\times}$L♀ mating, and the three-breed crosses from D♂${\times}$(Lw♂${\times}$L-♀) $F_1$ ♀ and D♂${\times}$(H♂${\times}$L♀) $F_1$♀ matings are superior crossbreds for reproductive and pork prodnction performance.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.333-339
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• 2011

The present study was performed to investigate the effects of pre- and post-weaning feeding programs on growth of pigs. A total of 24 litters (avg. 10.6 piglets/litter) born from multiparous (Yorkshire ${\times}$ Landrace) dams ${\times}$ Duroc sires were provided with neither creep feed (CF) nor milk replacer ("CON"), 200 gm CF/litter/d from the 15th day of lactation ("MIN"), or CF and milk replacer ad libitum for 7 h during the daytime from the 7th day ("MAX") through weaning at d 21 of age. Sixty-eight weanling pigs selected randomly from each of CON and MIN were provided with phases 1, 2 and 3 nursery diets for 7, 14, and 13 days, respectively, in two pens; an equal number of piglets from MAX received the same diets for 6, 10, and 18 days, respectively. Subsequently, all pigs were fed grower 1 and 2 diets sequentially up to d 95 and 135, respectively. The entire pre- and post-weaning feeding trial was repeated three times under a split-plot design of experiment. Initial and final weights and ADG of the suckling pigs did not differ between MAX/MIN and CON. However, final wt of MAX adjusted for initial wt, which was 0.17-kg less in MAX than in CON, was greater than that of CON by 0.31kg, whereas the difference between MIN and CON in final wt barely changed after the adjustment. Growth of the animals during the nursery and growing phases was not affected by the feeding program, whereas d 55 and 135 BW, as well as d 6 BW, were highly correlated with weaning weight (r=0.81, 0.57, and 0.76; P<0.001, <0.05, and <0.001, respectively). In conclusion, results suggest that provision of creep feed and milk replacer from early lactation may be effective for increasing weight gain of light piglets, but that limited provision of creep feed during late lactation or extension of the duration of phases 1 and 2 vs. 3 nursery diets for several days is unlikely to influence the growth of pigs during the corresponding and subsequent periods.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1239-1244
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• 2017

Objective: This study was conducted to estimate breed-specific variance components for total number born (TNB), number born alive (NBA) and mortality rate from birth through weaning including stillbirths (MORT) of three main swine breeds in Korea. In addition, the importance of including maternal genetic and service sire effects in estimation models was evaluated. Methods: Records of farrowing traits from 6,412 Duroc, 18,020 Landrace, and 54,254 Yorkshire sows collected from January 2001 to September 2016 from different farms in Korea were used in the analysis. Animal models and the restricted maximum likelihood method were used to estimate variances in animal genetic, permanent environmental, maternal genetic, service sire and residuals. Results: The heritability estimates ranged from 0.072 to 0.102, 0.090 to 0.099, and 0.109 to 0.121 for TNB; 0.087 to 0.110, 0.088 to 0.100, and 0.099 to 0.107 for NBA; and 0.027 to 0.031, 0.050 to 0.053, and 0.073 to 0.081 for MORT in the Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire breeds, respectively. The proportion of the total variation due to permanent environmental effects, maternal genetic effects, and service sire effects ranged from 0.042 to 0.088, 0.001 to 0.031, and 0.001 to 0.021, respectively. Spearman rank correlations among models ranged from 0.98 to 0.99, demonstrating that the maternal genetic and service sire effects have small effects on the precision of the breeding value. Conclusion: Models that include additive genetic and permanent environmental effects are suitable for farrowing traits in Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire populations in Korea. This breed-specific variance components estimates for litter traits can be utilized for pig improvement programs in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1109-1115
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• 2008

The reproduction component traits are important components of sow efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the phenotypic and genetic parameters of four reproduction component traits (age at puberty (AP), preweaning number dead (PND), weaning to service interval (WSI), and intra-individual SD in litter size (IISDLS)) of sows in two Chinese indigenous pig breeds. Available reproductive records including 22,591 piglets born from 2,054 litters by 574 Jiangquhai sows and 464 Meishan sows were used in this investigation. A set of mixed models and restricted maximum likelihood methodology were used for the multiple trait analyses of these traits. The results showed that the estimates of heritabilities (${\pm}$standard error) for AP, PND, WSI and IISDLS were $0.40{\pm}0.05$, $0.06{\pm}0.03$, $0.20{\pm}0.02$ and 0.09{\pm}0.03 in Jiangquhai sows, and $0.35{\pm}0.06$, $0.05{\pm}0.03$, $0.18{\pm}0.03$ and $0.10{\pm}0.04$ in Meishan sows, respectively. There was moderate genetic correlation between AP and WSI, while there were low genetic correlations between the other pairwise traits. The genetic correlations were positive for most of the pairwise traits, except for the one between AP and IISDLS. The results indicated that all traits except for AP were difficult to make genetic improvement by traditional selection methods due to low heritabilities and the favorable improvement of AP might result in unfavorable changes of IISDLS due to the trend of genetic antagonism.