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Heritability of Backfat Thickness Measured on the Live Pig at a Constant Age¹

Iowa State University, Ames

Abstract

Genetic variation in backfat thickness was investigated in Duroc and Hampshire pigs. The animals used were from an experiment on the genetic effects of irradiation. The backfat measure studied was the average, adjusted for differences in body weight, of three probes on the live animal. All measurements were made when the animals were 154 days old. No detectable genetic effects of irradiation on average backfat thickness were found among pigs sired by irradiated boars. The analyses of genetic variation in 7642 pigs indicated that the heritability of differences within breeds was 0.25. This is about half the value previously reported for measures of carcass composition taken at a nearly constant weight. The correlation among full-sibs and the results of cross-nursing experiments demonstrated the importance of the postnatal environment on the backfat thickness at 154 days.

¹ Journal Paper No. J-4727 of the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 1424. This work has received assistance from Contract AT (11-1)-707 from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.