Markey Alice, Groβe-Brinkhaus Christine, Mörlein Daniel, Mörlein Johanna, Wilmot Hélène, Tholen Ernst, Gengler Nicolas
TERRA Teaching and Research Center, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (ULiège-GxABT), 5030, Gembloux, Belgium.
Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany.
J Anim Sci. 2025 Jan 4;103. doi: 10.1093/jas/skae389.
Using genetic selection for raising intact boars, which improves growth and feed efficiency, is a promising alternative to castration for mitigating boar taint. Selective breeding has the potential to help to identify and select genetic lines with a reduced risk of boar taint. Common phenotypes are laboratory measurements of skatole (SKA) and androstenone (ANON) i.e., the major compounds responsible for boar taint, in backfat. However, an alternative exists: sensory evaluation by human assessors. The objectives of this study were (1) to estimate the genetic relationships among sensory scores (SENS) obtained by different assessors, (2) to correlate these scores with SKA and ANON, (3) to establish the independence of SENS from the causal traits, here SKA and ANON, by recursive modeling, holding those constant, and (4) to combine different assessors to allow an efficient selection against boar taint. Data included up to 1,016 records of SKA, ANON, and SENS (0-5) from 10 trained assessors on the backfat of intact males reared at least until puberty at three performance testing stations testing the products of Pietrain × commercial crossbred sows. Genetic parameters were estimated using restricted estimate maximum likelihood. Traits SKA and ANON were log10 transformed (SKAt and ANONt) and SENS traits were Snell transformed SENS (SENSt). Heritability estimates were 0.52 for SKAt and 0.53 for ANONt, those for SENSt ranged from 0.07 to 0.30. Moderate to high genetic correlations between some SENSt and SKAt (up to 0.87) and ANONt (up to 0.61) were found. Heritabilities and correlations indicated that some SENSt could be used to select against boar taint. Studying the independence of SENSt from SKAt and ANONt based on a posteriori recursive model revealed a large range of reductions of genetic variance: up to 71.08%. However, some SENSt remained moderately heritable (0.04-0.19) indicating independent genetic variance from SKAt and ANONt. This reflects that some heritable compounds potentially not related to SKA or ANON are perceived. Finally, the combination of assessors allowed, here shown with three assessors, to obtain a high heritability of 0.40, associated to high genetic and phenotypic correlations. Moreover, these results demonstrate the potential of using the sensory scores of several trained assessors for selection against boar taint.
利用基因选择来培育未阉割公猪，可提高生长速度和饲料效率，这是一种有前景的替代阉割的方法，有助于减轻公猪膻味。选择性育种有潜力帮助识别和选择公猪膻味风险较低的遗传品系。常见的表型是对背膘中粪臭素（SKA）和雄烯酮（ANON）（即造成公猪膻味的主要化合物）进行实验室测量。然而，还有另一种方法：由人类评估员进行感官评估。本研究的目的是：（1）估计不同评估员获得的感官评分（SENS）之间的遗传关系；（2）将这些评分与SKA和ANON进行关联；（3）通过递归建模，在保持SKA和ANON不变的情况下，确定SENS与因果性状（即SKA和ANON）的独立性；（4）合并不同评估员的评分，以便有效地选择抗公猪膻味的猪。数据包括来自10名经过培训的评估员对至少饲养至青春期的未阉割雄性猪背膘的SKA、ANON和SENS（0 - 5）记录，这些猪在三个性能测试站饲养，这些测试站测试的是皮特兰猪×商业杂交母猪的后代。使用限制最大似然法估计遗传参数。对性状SKA和ANON进行log10转换（SKAt和ANONt），对SENS性状进行斯内尔转换得到SENSt。SKAt的遗传力估计值为0.52，ANONt的遗传力估计值为0.53，SENSt的遗传力估计值在0.07至0.30之间。发现一些SENSt与SKAt（高达0.87）和ANONt（高达0.61）之间存在中度到高度的遗传相关性。遗传力和相关性表明，一些SENSt可用于选择抗公猪膻味的猪。基于后验递归模型研究SENSt与SKAt和ANONt的独立性，发现遗传方差有很大范围的降低：高达71.08%。然而，一些SENSt仍然具有中度遗传性（0.04 - 0.19），表明与SKAt和ANONt存在独立的遗传方差。这反映出一些可能与SKA或ANON无关的可遗传化合物被感知到了。最后，评估员的组合（这里以三名评估员为例）能够获得高达0.40的高遗传力，且伴有高遗传和表型相关性。此外，这些结果证明了利用多名经过培训的评估员的感官评分来选择抗公猪膻味猪的潜力。
