Inbreeding levels and effective population size of duroc populations of major swine breeding farms in Korea

Abstract : The pedigree data of 86,639 heads from six major swine breeding farms were investigated to check levels of inbreeding and effective population size of breeding stocks. The average rate of inbreeding was 1.04%, 0.87%, 3.17%, 1.05%, 3.23% and 3.33% for farms A, B, C, D, E and F, respectively. The average inbreeding rate was highest for F farm and lowest for B farm. In farms D and E, there were quite large numbers of immigrant animals per generation compared to other farms. The effective population sizes calculated from the average rate of inbreeding were distributed between 83.0 and 814.8. Specific values were 282.3, 225.5, 83.0, 814.8, 302.9 and 175.7 for farms A, B, C, D, E and F, respectively. The results showed that there was no cause for concern over the current inbreeding level of major swine breeding farm populations and the inbreeding level was within an acceptable range. In addition, internal sharing rather than importing pig is necessary to strengthen seed sovereignty.