A stress susceptibility-targeted approach for genetic improvement of pork meat quality

猪肉行业是加拿大经济的重要部门，2018年出口额为40亿美元(加拿大猪肉理事会，2019年)。包括猪在内的农场动物一生都面临压力，包括社会压力(例如，喂食竞争和断奶)和环境压力(例如，极端温度、狭小的空间和运输期间和屠宰场的新环境)。众所周知，应激会影响猪的健康，并对生产产生负面影响，包括饲料效率、生长和肉质。几十年的生长和瘦肉驱动的遗传育种可能是以牺牲动物行为和压力等其他特征为代价的。在这项建议中，我们将重点放在我们新发现的应激基因上，并确定有益的遗传变异/DNA标记，以在降低母猪应激的同时提高肉质。在安大略省猪肉、Alliance Genetics Canada Inc.(安大略省最大的养殖公司之一)和我们的合作伙伴加拿大生猪改良中心的支持下，我们的目标是为养猪业设计一套遗传标记，用于遗传选择和培育高质量的猪肉，改善动物福利。

The pork industry is a vital sector of Canadian economy, which exported $4 billion in 2018 (Canadian Pork Council, 2019). Farm animals, including pigs, experience stresses throughout their life, including social stress (e.g., feeding competition and weaning) and environmental stress (e.g., extreme temperatures, tight space and novel environment during transportation and at abattoir). It is well documented that stress impacts swine health and negatively affects production, including feed efficiency, growth and meat quality. Decades of growth and leanness-driven genetic breeding may have been at the expense of other traits such as animal behaviours and stress. In this proposal, we will focus on our newly discovered stress genes and identify beneficial genetic variations/DNA markers for enhancing meat quality while lowering sow stress. With the industrial support of Ontario Pork, Alliance Genetics Canada Inc (one of the biggest breeding companies in Ontario), and our collaborator, Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement Inc, we aim to devise a panel of genetic markers for genetic selection and breeding of high meat quality pigs with improved animal welfare for the swine industry.