1Institute of Animal Breeding and Husbandry, Christian-Albrechts-University, D-24118 Kiel, Germany.
Animal. 2008 Sep;2(9):1281-8. doi: 10.1017/S1751731108002516.
The aim of the study was to analyse the genetic background of different traits to characterise the maternal behaviour of sows and to evaluate the relationship to different causes of piglet losses - increasing piglet survival due to higher maternal abilities of the sow. A total of 1538 purebred litters from 943 German Landrace sows in the year 2004 were available for data analysis. Around 13 971 individually earmarked piglets were included in the analyses. Maternal abilities were characterised through the sow's reaction to the separation from her litter during the first 24 h after farrowing, and on day 21 of lactation, the reaction towards the playback of a piglet's distress call and the reaction towards an unknown noise (music). In 1220 of these litters, the sows were also scored for aggressiveness in the group when regrouped before entering the farrowing crates. To describe fertility, the number of piglets born alive, stillborn piglets, number of piglets born in total and the individual birth weight were utilised. Different causes of piglet losses were evaluated as binary traits of the dam with survival rate, different definitions for crushing by the sow, being underweight and runts. The heritability for being aggressive in the group was h2 = 0.32 and for the behaviour traits during lactation, the heritabilities ranged from h2 = 0.06 to 0.14. The genetic correlations showed that more-reactive sows had fewer piglet losses.
本研究旨在分析不同性状的遗传背景，以描述母猪的母性行为，并评估其与不同仔猪死亡原因的关系——通过提高母猪的母性能力来提高仔猪的存活率。共有 943 头德国长白母猪在 2004 年的 1538 窝纯种仔猪可供数据分析。大约有 13971 头单独标记的仔猪被纳入分析。母猪的母性能力通过以下几个方面来描述：分娩后 24 小时内母猪与仔猪分离时的反应，哺乳期第 21 天对仔猪求救叫声的回放反应，以及对未知噪音（音乐）的反应。在这 1220 窝仔猪中，当母猪被重新分组进入分娩箱之前，还对其在群体中的攻击性进行了评分。为了描述繁殖力，利用了活产仔猪数、死产仔猪数、总产仔数和个体出生体重。仔猪死亡率的不同原因被评估为二元母本性状，包括存活率、母猪不同定义的压死、体重不足和弱小仔猪。群体中具有攻击性的母猪的遗传力为 h2=0.32，哺乳期行为特征的遗传力范围为 h2=0.06 至 0.14。遗传相关性表明，反应更强烈的母猪仔猪死亡率更低。
