Abstract: Although the pig industry around the world has benefited much from application of BLUP, new genomics tools are promising more benefits. Studies on production, health and meat quality traits have demonstrated the power and potential of genomics. For successful application of genomics, dense enough marker panel and thousands of genotyped animals to build a large reference population are needed. Despite the benefits of genomics, large-scale application is very costly due to the high price of genotyping. Previous studies have shown that using imputation can help to decrease genotyping costs, however, successful validation models and protocols are needed to define strategies for selection of genotyping candidates and for choosing the appropriate SNP panel density. This study provides an overview on the current status of genomic evaluation research in pigs and tools required for application of the technology by the swine breeding industry.

Presented at the 10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 17-24, Vancouver, BC, Canada