World-class genetic potential is the foundation for herd performance. Tom Rathje, chief technical officer at DNA Genetics LLC, says without it, the U.S. pork industry won’t be able to compete against other proteins.
“Although there are other aspects to competitive production such as health, quality of incoming females, proper nutrition programs and great management, all of these focus on extracting the potential performance of each animal,” Rathje says. “The basis for that lies in their genetic potential.”
How can genetic technology help producers improve their business? Jenelle Dunkelberger, global health and behavior platform lead for Topigs Norsvin, believes it starts with genetic improvement in economically important traits for production, such as growth, feed efficiency and survival.
“Today, we facilitate genetic improvement using a genetic technology called genomic selection. Genomic selection has had a substantial impact on the production capacity of animals in the last decade,” she explains. “Genomic selection has increased the rate of genetic improvement in performance traits, mostly due to improved accuracy of selection.”
As compared to using pedigree information, genomic information enables more accurate estimation of genetic merit for a given trait, Dunkelberger says.
“For example, when relying on pedigree data, we estimate an individual’s genetic merit as the average of its parents,” she says. “This means that all piglets within a litter are assumed to have the same genetic merit (i.e. are assigned the same breeding value) for a given trait. In reality, littermates may inherit different versions of genes from their parents — information that can only be captured by genotyping.”
This genetic technology provides the capacity to help ensure a systems-approach to genetic improvement, says Clint Schwab, vice president of technology and customer success for AcuFast Genetics, LLC.
“The environment is constantly evolving; this means that the ‘fit’ of the genes need to adapt in concert with the environment,” Schwab says. “The evolution of the pig’s environment is not only due to regulatory, societal or labor/talent pressures, but also results from innovation in other sectors of the industry — nutrition, housing, health, etc. Animals express their potential differently depending on the culmination of these changes, and we need to ensure that innovations across the sectors complement each other.”
Justin Holl, senior product development director for PIC, says tools capturing important data and turning it into understanding of the genetic merit of potential parents can help maximize the success of the future.
“We see dramatic increases in precision phenotyping, using technologies like camera- or vision-imaging systems, enabling meaningful, efficient and large-scale data capture across a much wider range of environments,” Holl says. “This, combined with genomic science, should allow us to make faster progress for important traits like robustness, efficiency and productivity. As a result, the next generation of pigs have a higher profit potential for producers.”
Pork producers have different economic models, Rathje adds. The genetic technology in use today can very accurately predict and help leverage the natural variation available to bring more genetic potential to those unique profit drivers.
Dunkelberger, Holl, Rathje and Schwab take a deeper look into what’s ahead for the U.S. pork industry in the ever-evolving field of genetics.
Q: Today’s genetic tools are advancing. What does that mean for U.S. producers?
Holl: Clearly science continues to evolve at a quick pace. The combination of better sources of data and more detailed descriptors of the genetic characteristics of individual animals allows us to unlock greater precision and understanding. This could be as simple as adding new traits to the selection program and enabling a more complete description of profit potential for a selection target. It can also unlock precise targets to use the next generation of technologies, such as gene editing, to more quickly and precisely deliver genetic solutions in the future for disease, robustness and efficiency.
Rathje: The technologies we have today allow us to identify more genetic variation in a very accurate way. This has increased the rate of genetic progress and is allowing us to tackle very complex traits in ways that we have not been able to in the recent past. Producers are benefiting directly from this improved genetic potential. It’s an input with one of the highest ROIs for a producer. Having said that, while these technologies are promising and exciting, they do not come free and are often expensive to implement and increase the cost of running a selection program over time. There are many things we can now do to help solve challenges for producers, but producers need to decide if they are willing to pay those costs.
Q: What do you anticipate changing in the next five years regarding the application of genetic tools?
Dunkelberger: I anticipate the cost of genotyping will continue to decrease, making it possible to genotype more individuals at a higher resolution. Increasing the percentage of genotyped animals within our herds will increase accuracy of selection and, ultimately, improve performance for traits under selection. Sequence data will be used to build (or add to) reference populations of sequenced animals for specific genetic lines and facilitate imputation from lower to higher density. I also anticipate the addition of new traits to selection indices, especially for traits that have traditionally been difficult or impossible to measure. For example, health and welfare traits are becoming increasingly relevant, but methods to measure such traits have been limited. Advancements in camera and sensor technology, and the development of machine learning models to process data, are expected to play a role in improving our ability to define and derive phenotypes for these traits.
Holl: Our industry and the potential tools to support it are changing. We are asked to do more with less and compete with other protein sources to maximize our value proposition to the global consumer. Traditional selection, characterized by data capture and genetic prediction, will continue to be a pillar for broad and balanced progress. We believe the initial uses of gene editing will be introduced to multiple global markets — not just in the U.S. pork industry but also likely in poultry, beef and aqua. In addition, we will see several tools implemented in the next five years that aid in the delivery of genetic improvement to the commercial level — such as lower concentration semen utilization and sexed semen for specific uses.
Rathje: Gene editing and other tools to create intentional genetic alterations will continue to develop. These tools hold great promise for increasing the rate of genetic progress to enhance traits that benefit the pig, the producer and the consumer of pork. There are a number of questions industry must answer before these are used in the pork supply chain, particularly related to the impact on demand that could result from a gene-edited pig. The technology is not advanced enough to support routine use in a breeding program. We are not at a point where we can quickly and easily incorporate an edit into a routine breeding system within weeks. As the technology evolves, it is likely this problem will have a solution. The current regulatory framework is a major challenge to routine use.
Schwab: The list of novel tools that are illustrating real potential continues to grow. Examples such as gene editing, new genomic sequencing technology, sensor tools, etc., are all available today, but how they are leveraged to drive sustainable value for the industry is still in its infancy. These tools ultimately allow us to identify and utilize genetic variation that has largely been under the radar in the past and represents the key opportunity. A similar evolution in reproductive technology will also support faster pathways in regard to delivering genetic change to the customer level. For quite some time, other species have been ahead of pigs in these areas, but recent advancements will increase the speed of delivery for many of the genetic changes that have been discussed.
Q: What areas of a production system will be influenced by genetics more readily in the future?
Dunkelberger: We continuously search for new target traits for selection or better ways of measuring traits that are already under selection. Different traits are expected to increase in relevance in the future, such as traits used to select pigs for more sustainable production. Common sustainability goals include improving animal welfare, decreasing antibiotic usage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We observe evidence of natural, genetic variation in traits related to all three themes and already select in a direction consistent with these themes. On-going development of new traits and phenotyping tools will increase our ability to select pigs to meet these goals. In the future, I anticipate we will also be able to optimize genetics for different environments.
Schwab: While genetic progress continues to accelerate, it’s safe to say a profitable equation to U.S. swine production is not getting simpler going forward. Given ongoing pressures, the ability of existing genetic programs to focus on traits in the areas of behavior, adaptability and user-friendliness have opened the door to selection for genetic products that better fit production environments going forward. It’s not as simple as just producing more pigs at birth; we need to reduce system attrition across the production chain and optimize the required inputs to achieve greater value. Progress assumes these characteristics are under selection pressure. The old paradigm that if you measure it and put energy on it, it will change still holds true. There are many examples within key global genetic programs of new and more sophisticated phenotypes being collected and analyzed. In the end, change will occur at a deeper biological level across a wider spectrum of traits, which will then allow breeding programs to deliver rapid progress with higher predictability.
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