Gorssen Wim, Maes Dominiek, Meyermans Roel, Depuydt Jürgen, Janssens Steven, Buys Nadine
Center for Animal Breeding and Genetics, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30-Box 2472, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
Porcine Health Management Unit, Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2021 Jul 8;10(7):829. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10070829.
The use of antimicrobials in animal production is under public debate, mainly due to the risk of transfer of resistance to pathogenic bacteria in humans. Therefore, measures have been taken during the last few decades to reduce antibiotic usage in animals, for instance, by national monitoring programmes and by improving animal health management. Although some initiatives exist in molecular genetic selection, quantitative genetic selection of animals towards decreased antibiotic usage is an underexplored area to reduce antibiotic usage. However, this strategy could yield cumulative effects. In this study, we derived new phenotypes from on-farm parenteral antibiotic records from commercially grown crossbred finishing pigs used in the progeny test of Piétrain terminal sires to investigate the heritability of antibiotics usage. Parenteral antibiotic records, production parameters and pedigree records of 2238 full-sib pens from two experimental farms in Belgium between 2014 and 2020 were analysed. Heritability estimates were moderate (18-44%) for phenotypes derived from all antibiotic treatments, and low (1-15%) for phenotypes derived from treatments against respiratory diseases only. Moreover, genetic correlations between these new phenotypes and mortality were low to moderate (0.08-0.60) and no strong adverse genetic correlations with production traits were found. The high heritabilities and favourable genetic correlations suggest these new phenotypes, derived from on-farm antibiotics records, to be promising for inclusion in future pig breeding programs to breed for a decrease in antibiotics usage.
动物生产中抗菌药物的使用引发了公众的讨论，主要是因为存在将耐药性转移给人类病原菌的风险。因此，在过去几十年里已经采取了一些措施来减少动物抗生素的使用，例如通过国家监测计划和改善动物健康管理。虽然在分子遗传选择方面已经有一些举措，但针对减少抗生素使用的动物数量遗传选择是一个尚未充分探索的领域。然而，这种策略可能会产生累积效应。在本研究中，我们从用于皮特兰终端公猪后代测试的商业养殖杂交育肥猪的农场非肠道抗生素记录中得出新的表型，以研究抗生素使用的遗传力。分析了2014年至2020年比利时两个实验农场2238个全同胞栏的非肠道抗生素记录、生产参数和系谱记录。所有抗生素治疗产生的表型的遗传力估计值为中等（18 - 44%），仅针对呼吸道疾病治疗产生的表型的遗传力估计值较低（1 - 15%）。此外，这些新表型与死亡率之间的遗传相关性为低到中等（0.08 - 0.60），未发现与生产性状有强烈的不利遗传相关性。高遗传力和有利的遗传相关性表明，这些从农场抗生素记录中得出的新表型有望纳入未来的猪育种计划，以培育出抗生素使用量减少的猪。
