Abstract: The feasibility of genetic selection against boar taint in sire lines to reduce levels of taint in commercial progeny was investigated. Androstenone is the main compound responsible for boar taint and in a previous study, about 50% of Duroc boars exceeded the consumer acceptance level. A total of 1,079 Duroc boars were genotyped for 97 SNP markers in candidate genes known to be involved in metabolism of androstenone and skatole, from which 60 markers had a MAF>0.05. The natural logarithm of androstenone levels in fat samples of 580 boars, weighing between 90 kg and 150 kg and less than 300 days old, were used to estimate the effects of SNPs. A two-step analysis was performed. First, the SAS GLM procedure was used to adjust phenotypes for season and the boar�s age and weight at time of sampling. In a second step, residuals of the GLM procedure were used in a backward elimination in the SAS REG procedure to identify the best fitting model. The estimated effects of 17 significant SNPs were used to calculate marker-assisted estimated breeding values (MEBVs) for androstenone levels for 452 AI boars. The top and bottom 30 boars with extreme MEBVs were selected to produce commercial Duroc X Landrace/Yorkshire progeny. Average androstenone MEBVs in high and low sire groups were 1.82 and 0.94, respectively. Assuming additive effects for selected SNPs and random sampling of dams, it is expected that the difference between average levels of androstenone in commercial progeny of high and low sire groups would be 0.44 in log scale. Therefore, MEBVs for androstenone seem promising and will be validated in commercial trials.

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Presented at the 66^th EAAP Annual General Meeting, August 31-September 4, 2015, Warsaw, Poland