The pig industry is related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Improved breed is the "chip" for the sustainable and healthy development of the pig industry, and pig breeding technology is the "engine" for the high-quality development of the pig industry. At the International Pig Congress, professional experts clearly pointed out that it is necessary to continue to implement the pig genetic improvement program around "building a collaborative and efficient breeding system, building a breeding data system for the whole industry chain, improving the efficiency of pig breeding services, improving the level of breed innovation and resource utilization, and improving the pig biosafety system". Focus on solving the short board weak point of development of our country pig seed industry.

Supporting policies

1. In the Notice on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Pig Breeding Industry issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, it is clearly proposed that: strengthen the performance measurement of breeding pigs, improve the genetic evaluation system, accelerate the promotion and application of new breeding technologies such as genome selection, continuously improve the genetic progress of breeding pigs, and cultivate new varieties and lines.

2. In order to further enhance the innovation capacity of China's pig breeding industry and lead and support the high-quality development of the pig industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has formulated the National Pig Genetic Improvement Plan (2021-2035), which puts forward a series of suggestions and measures for the overall lagging application of key technologies, imperfect breeding mechanism, weak independent innovation capacity and other problems.

Pig breeding technology

1. Genetic evaluation technology

According to the National Breeding Pig Genetic Evaluation Program, the Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) method is the standard method for pig genetic evaluation, and the accuracy of genetic evaluation can be improved by 30% by applying BLUP breeding value estimation method, which greatly speeds up genetic progress. The main advantages of this method are as follows: （1）it can make full use of all relative information;（2）It can take into account the genetic differences between different populations or generations;（3）Can correct the fixed environmental effect, effectively eliminate the deviation;（4）can correct the deviation caused by the selection;（5）The bias caused by elimination can be reduced when using multiple records of individuals.

2.Genome-wide selection technology

In the field of pig breeding, traditional genetic evaluation techniques have poor accuracy in estimating breeding values due to the low heritability of reproductive traits, milk production traits and disease resistance traits of pigs, which are difficult to measure early. Genomic Selection (GS) technology uses high-density genetic markers covering the whole genome to calculate the estimated breeding value of the individual genome, which can accurately predict the estimated breeding value and reduce the inbreeding number at an early stage. This technology is a major innovation on the basis of traditional genetic evaluation technology. The genetic progress of breeding has been greatly accelerated.

3. Multi-omics integrated analysis technology

Multi-Omics technology is a new breeding technology that integrates and analyzes omics research methods at different molecular levels such as genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. In the field of pig breeding, multi-omics integrated analysis technology is mainly used to study related genes and regulatory functions in pig skeletal muscle development, economic traits, reproductive traits, disease damage and other aspects, which can narrow the screening scope of target genes when breeding excellent varieties of disease resistance and stress resistance. However, how to accurately and quickly screen useful information from it is still one of the difficulties in current multi-omics research.

4. Gene editing technology

Gene Editing technology specifically modifies the genomic DNA of organisms by means of precise knockout, site-directed insertion or induced mutation, so that the traits of organisms can be directed to change and passed on to future generations. In the field of pig breeding, gene editing technology can improve multiple traits such as disease resistance, reproduction and meat production at the same time, which greatly shorters the selection time and speeds up the breeding process, and has a very broad application prospect. However, government authorities have not yet issued specific policies on the commercial use of gene-edited animals, so gene editing technology has been in the early stage of development.

Conclusion

The progress of pig breeding technology has promoted the development of pig industry in China, improved the accuracy of seed selection and breeding efficiency, and promoted the construction of improved breed breeding system.However, the application degree of most of the new breeding technologies is low, and they have not made practical contributions to pig breeding work.

If you want to learn more about the pig industry, please visit the International Pig Congress website to learn more.

Source: COMPASS AGRITECHNOLOGY

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