Connectedness rate among commercial pig breeding herds in Korea

This study aims to estimate the connectedness rate of Korean swine breeding herds. Using 104,380 performance and 83,200 reproduction records from three swine breeds (Yorkshire, Landrace and Duroc), the connectedness rating (CR) was estimated for two traits: average daily gain (ADG) and number born alive (NBA) in eight breeding herds in the Republic of Korea (hereafter, Korea). The average CR for ADG in the Yorkshire breed ranges from 1.32% to 28.5% depending on the farm. The average CR for NBA in the Yorkshire herd ranges from 0% to 12.79%. A total of 60% of Yorkshire and Duroc herds satisfied the preconditions suggested for evaluating genetic analysis among the herds. The precondition for the genetic evaluation of CR for ADG, as a performance trait, was higher than 3% and that of NBA, as a reproductive trait, was higher than 1.5%. The ADG in the Yorkshire herds showed the highest average CR. However, the average CR of ADG in the Landrace herds was lower than the criterion of the precondition. The prediction error variance of the difference (PEVD) was employed to assess the validation of the CR, as PEVDs exhibit fluctuations that are coupled with the CR across the herds. A certain degree of connectedness is essential to estimate breeding value comparisons between herds. This study suggests that it is possible to evaluate the genetic values together for ADG and NBA in the Yorkshire herds since the preconditions were satisfied for these four herds. It is also possible to perform a joint genetic analysis of the ADG records of all Duroc herds since the preconditions were also satisfied. This study provides new insight into understanding the genetic connectedness of Korean swine herds. CR could be utilized to accelerate the genetic progress of Korean swine breeding herds.