• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제12권7호
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• pp.1015-1018
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• 1999

Single trait mixed models have been dominantly utilized for genetic evaluation of the reproductive traits in swine. However employing multiple trait approach may lead to more accurate genetic evaluations. For 5 litter size and litter weight traits of Danish Landrace, genetic parameters were estimated with a multiple trait mixed model. The heritability estimates were 0.02, 0.03, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.07, respectively for litter size at birth, litter size born alive, litter weight at birth, litter size at weaning, and litter weight at weaning. Negative genetic correlations were all positive. The litter weight at birth showed genetic antagonism with litter size born alive (-0.65) and litter size at weaning (-0.31), but positive with litter size at birth (0.47) and litter weight at weaning (0.31). The estimates of environmental correlations were larger than their corresponding genetic correlation estimates except for those between litter weight at birth and the other four traits. This study recommends simultaneous selection for two or more traits with multivariate mixed models in order to improve overall economic response.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.772-776
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• 2002

This study was made with 631 does of 3 genetic groups and 1,112 of their kids allocated into 3 different locations to examine gestation length, litter size and litter weight in goats. Attributes studied were genetic group, parity, age of dam at kidding, weight of dam at breeding, season and location. Genetic group of dam affected significantly (p<0.01) size of litter but not gestation length and weight of litter. Selected Black Bengal (SBB) genetic group performed better in litter size and litter weight than random bred Black Bengal (RBB) and its crossbreds with Jamunapari ♂ (JBB). Litter size and weight were significantly affected by age of dam at kidding (p<0.01), weight of dam at service (p<0.001) and parity (p<0001). Size and weight of litter were found highest in SBB does, or does having 35-40 months of age at kidding, or does with 19-20 kg live weight at service, or at 4th parity. Season, location and parity also affected significantly (p<0.05) gestation length. Shortest gestation length was found in 5th parity or in summer season, whereas the longest was in 2nd parity or in winter season.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.257-263
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• 2007

This study was performed to investigate the relationship between PSS-HSP70 gene polymorphism and artificial insemination (AI) reproductivity in the pigs. The RFLP polymorphism of PSS and the SSCP polymorphisms of HSP70 K1, K3 and K4 PCR product were detected different patterns. In the experiment for AI of fresh semen, spring and fall season showed higher litter size born of 10.89 head than 10.47 head of summer season. Landrace was showed higher litter size of 9.96 head than that of Duroc and Yorkshire (p<0.05). Stress relating PSS and HSP70 polymorphism of PSS-Normal, HSP70 K1-BB, K3-AB, K4-AA showd a highest litter size born of 10.97 head and litter size born alive of 10.69 head than that of the other polymorphisms(p<0.05). In the experiment for AI of frozen semen, effects of season and pig breeds were not showed for litter size born. The stress relating polymorphism of PSS-Carrier, HSP70 K1-BB, K3-BB, K4-AB showed highest litter size born of 11.29 head and litter size born alive of 10.82 head and PSS-Normal, HSP70 K1-BB, K3-AB, K4-AA showed the lowest litter size born of 8.48 head and litter size born alive of 7.33 head than that of the other polymorphisms(p<0.05). These results suggest that AI litter size born for the stress of forzen thawed semen may be affected by PSS and HSP70 polymorphism in pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제27권5호
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• pp.628-634
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• 2014

Data on age and body weight at breeding, parity, previous litter size, days open and some descriptive body linear traits from 389 meat-type, prolific Black Bengal goats in Tripura State of India, were collected for 3 and 1/2 years (2007 to 2010) and analyzed using logistic regression model. The objectives of the study were i) to evaluate the effect of age and body weight at breeding, parity, previous litter size and days open on litter size of does; and ii) to investigate if body linear type traits influenced litter size in meat-type, prolific goats. The incidence of 68.39% multiple births with a prolificacy rate of 175.07% was recorded. Higher age (>2.69 year), higher parity order (>2.31), more body weight at breeding (>20.5 kg) and larger previous litter size (>1.65) showed an increase likelihood of multiple litter size when compared to single litter size. There was a strong, positive relationship between litter size and various body linear type traits like neck length (>22.78 cm), body length (>54.86 cm), withers height (>48.85 cm), croup height (>50.67 cm), distance between tuber coxae bones (>11.38 cm) and distance between tuber ischii bones (>4.56 cm) for discriminating the goats bearing multiple fetuses from those bearing a single fetus.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.307-315
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• 2001

Litter size has been one of the important economic traits in porcine reproduction. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system has been shown to mediate actions of the steroid hormone or to synergize with other endocrine factors so that it consequently plays roles in reproductive processes, including ovulation, implantation, maintenance of pregnancy, and fetal development. However, the effect of the serum IGF system on porcine litter size has not been deeply studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to relate serum IFG-II concentration and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) expression with porcine litter size. Moreover, the possible association of those with estrogen receptor (ER) as a candidate gene for litter size was investigated. Swine were separated into two groups showing high and low litter sizes, and sera were collected from sows in the estrous cycle to postnatal growth of their female progeny. Serum IFG-II concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay and IGFBP-3 expression was detected by Western ligand blotting. During the estrous cycle, IGFBP-3 expression in both groups decreased moderately from metestrus to estrus, but IFG-II concentration showed a reverse pattern. Also, IFG-II concentration and IGFBP-3 expression decreased gradually as pregnancy proceeded. Unlike IGFBP-3, IFG-II decreased moderately as newborn pigs grew. Significant differences in serum IFG-II amount between the two groups were detected at 60 (p<0.01), 75, 90, and 105 d (p<0.05) of pregnancy and at 60 (p<0.01), 45, and 105 d (p<0.05) of postnatal growth. Furthermore, based on ER genotypes, a high litter size group with genotypes AB and BB showed lower IFG-II concentration than a low litter size group with a genotype AA during pregnancy. Taken together, the results indicate that the serum IFG-II and IGFBP-3 are correlated with the litter size in pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.300-306
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• 1998

An experiment was conducted to investigate correlations of litter size and average serum progesterone concentrations during pregnancy with mammary gland growth and development at parturition. Twenty ewes (5, 9, 4, and 2 ewes carrying 0, 1, 2, and 3 lambs, respectively) were used to measure weekly serum progesterone concentration during pregnancy. At parturition, the experimental ewes were slaughtered for determination of mammary gland growth and development at parturition (mammary dry fat-free tissue [DFFT], DNA, RNA, collagen, protein, and glycogen). Correlation of mammary DFFT with litter size and averages serum progesterone concentrations were 0.75 and 0.72, respectively. Litter size or maternal serum progesterone concentrations did not correlate with the mammary DNA concentration. However, litter size or maternal serum progesterone concentrations positively correlated (p < 0.01) with the mammary RNA and protein concentrations, but negatively correlated with the mammary collagen (p < 0.01) and. glycogen (p < 0.05) concentrations. Litter size or maternal serum progesterone positively correlated (p < 0.01) with the total mammary DNA, RNA, collagen, protein and glycogen contents. These results implied that the increased concentrations of progesterone with the increased litter size during pregnancy improved mammary gland growth and development at parturition.

• 한국가축번식학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.213-220
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• 1999

산자수는 돼지의 번식능력에 있어 경제적 형질 중 중요한 요인으로 작용하고 있다. 최근 IGF-Ⅰ이 임신유지와 태아의 성장발달에 역할을 하는 것은 보고되어 있으나 산자수에 따른 혈청 IGF-Ⅰ연구는 부족한 상태이다. 그러므로 본 연구는 돼지의 산자수 그룹에 따른 혈청 IGF-I 농도 및 산자수에 관여하는 ER 유전자 다형성 분석을 통해 혈청 IGF-Ⅰ 농도에 대한 조사를 하고자 한다. 혈청은 산자수 높은 그룹과 낮은 그룹의 임신 45일부터 105령일 까지 모아 RIA로 IGF-Ⅰ의 농도를 측정하였으며 측정결과 두 그룹간에 유의적인 차이는 보이지 않았으나 점차적으로 떨어지는 경향을 보여 주었다. 또한 ER 유전자 다형성 분석에 따른 혈청내 IGF-Ⅰ농도는 산자수 낮은 그룹을 나타내는 단편의 IGF-Ⅰ농도가 높게 나타내는 단편에 IGF-Ⅰ농도보다 높게 나타났다. 따라서 본 연구를 통해 돼지의 내분비 물질 중 혈청내 IGF-Ⅰ이 돼지의 산자수와는 관련이 없으나 ER의 발현을 동시에 관찰한다면 돼지 산자수률 예측할 수 있다는 가능성을 제시할 수 있으며, 돼지의 번식기관 중 배란율에 관여하는 난소의 IGF-Ⅰ발현양상 등의 연구가 추후 진행될 필요가 있다고 사료된다.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제16권11호
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• pp.1555-1559
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• 2003

The objective of the present study was to explore associations between five microsatellites linked to $Fec^B$ and $FecX^I$ genes and litter size in Small Tail Han sheep. The polymorphisms of five microsatellite loci, OarAE101, BM1329, BMS2508, TGLA54 and TGLA68 were detected in 244 ewes of Small Tail Han sheep. Analysis of association between three microsatellite loci (BMS2508, BM1329 and OarAE101) located in the 10 cM region covering the $Fec^B$ gene (Booroola gene) and litter size in Small Tail Han sheep indicated that BMS2508 had significant effect on litter size in the second parity (p<0.05), but no significant effect on litter size in the first parity (p>0.05), while the other two microsatellite loci had no significant effect on litter size in both the first and the second parity in Small Tail Han sheep (p>0.05). At microsatellite locus BMS2508, least squares means in the second parity of genotypes 101/111 and 99/109 were significantly higher than those of genotypes 99/99, 99/101, 99/111 and 99/115 (p<0.05); least squares mean in the second parity of genotype 101/111 was significantly higher than that of genotypes 109/111 and 111/111 (p<0.05). Results of this study also indicated that two microsatellite loci (TGLA54 and TGLA68) that confined the 28.7 cM region covering the $FecX^I$ gene (Inverdale gene) did not affect litter size in both the first and the second parity in Small Tail Han sheep significantly (p>0.05). The information found in the present study is very important for improving the reproductive performance in sheep breeds by marker assisted selection.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.20-25
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• 2021

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the possibility of utilizing an early litter size trait as an indirect selection trait for longevity and to estimate genetic parameters between sow stayability and litter size at different parities using a linear-threshold model for longevity in Thai Large White (LW) and Landrace (LR) populations. Methods: The data included litter size at first, second, and third parities (NBA1, NBA2, and NBA3) and sow stayability from first to fourth farrowings (STAY14). The data was obtained from 10,794 LR and 9,475 LW sows. Genetic parameters were estimated using the multiple-trait animal model. A linear-threshold model was used in which NBA1, NBA2, and NBA3 were continuous traits, while STAY14 was considered a binary trait. Results: Heritabilities for litter size were low and ranged from 0.01 to 0.06 for both LR and LW breeds. Similarly, heritabilities for stayability were low for both breeds. Genetic associations between litter size and stayability ranged from 0.43 to 0.65 for LR populations and 0.12 to 0.55 for LW populations. The genetic correlation between NBA1 and STAY14 was moderate and in a favorable direction for both LR and LW breeds (0.65 and 0.55, respectively). Conclusion: A linear-threshold model could be utilized to analyze litter size and sow stayability traits. Furthermore, selection for litter size at first parity, which was the genetic trait correlated with longevity, is possible when one attempts to improve lifetime productivity in Thai swine populations.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제60권5호
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• pp.13.1-13.7
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• 2018

Background: The objective of this study was to underline that litter size as a key trait of sows needs new parameters to be evaluated and to target an individual optimum. Large individual variation in litter size affects both production and piglet's survival and health negatively. Therefore, two new traits were suggested and analyzed. Two data sets on 5509 purebred German Landrace sows and 3926 Large White and crossing sows including at least two parental generations and at least five parities were subjected to variance components analysis. Results: The new traits for evaluating litter size were derived from the individual numbers of total born piglets (TBP) per parity: In most cases, sows reach their maximum litter size in their fourth parity. Therefore, data from at least five parities were included. The first observable maximum and minimum of TBP, and the individual variation expressed by the range were targeted. Maximum of TBP being an observable trait in pig breeding and management yielded clearly higher heritability estimates ($h^2{\sim}0.3$) than those estimates predominantly reported so far. Maximum TBP gets closer to the genetic capacity for litter size than other litter traits. Minimum of TBP is positively correlated with the range of TBP ($r_p=0.48$, $r_g$ > 0.6). The correlation between maximum of TBP and its individually reached frequency was negative in both data sets ($r_p=-0.28$ and - 0.22, respectively). Estimated heritability coefficients for the range of TBP comprised a span of $h^2=0.06$ to 0.10. Conclusion: An optimum both for maximum and range of total born piglets in selecting sows is a way contributing to homogenous litters in order to improving the animal-related conditions both for piglets' welfare and economic management in pig.