Combining Traditional Breeding and Genomics to Improve Pork Quality

Abstract

Breeding for improved pork quality has been the focus of much research in recent years and some of the results have already been put into practice. The realized genetic response in pork quality to selection within lines has generally been limited, however, compared with the responses obtained for other traits. The relatively limited progress has been caused by lack of incentive to producers from industry, lack of clear definition of pork quality, high costs of collection of pork quality estimates, and consequently limited availability of phenotypic measures. The discovery of the HAL gene has greatly helped the elimination of alleles with a negative effect on pork quality. There are now proposals to integrate traditional and molecular breeding methods to improve pork quality. Implementation of such an integrated breeding strategy requires close cooperation between breeding organizations and slaughterhouses. This cooperation should help to provide clear incentives to producers and for the collection of data needed for the selection of optimal breed/line combinations and the creation of genetic improvements.