Definition of Environmental Variables and Critical Periods to Evaluate Heat Tolerance in Large White Pigs Based on Single-Step Genomic Reaction Norms.

ABSTRACT: Properly quantifying environmental heat stress (HS) is still a major challenge in livestock breeding programs, especially as adverse climatic events become more common. The definition of critical periods and climatic variables to be used as the environmental gradient is a key step for genetically evaluating heat tolerance (HTol). Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to define the best critical periods and environmental variables (ENV) to evaluate HT and estimate variance components for HT in Large White pigs. The traits included in this study were ultrasound backfat thickness (BFT), ultrasound muscle depth (MDP), piglet weaning weight (WW), off-test weight (OTW), interval between farrowing (IBF), total number of piglets born (TNB), number of piglets born alive (NBA), number of

SUBMITTER: Freitas PHF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8650309 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature