161. Indicators of disease resilience from complete blood count and in vitro immunoassays data from young-healthy pigs
Résumé
his study estimates heritability of complete blood count (CBC) and in vitro immunoassay traits. The traits
were measured from blood samples of young-healthy nursery animals that then survived to slaughter
during a natural polymicrobial disease challenge in the grow-to-finish stage but had variable production
performance. Genetic correlations of CBC and immunoassay traits with performance traits collected from
grow-to-finish pigs exposed to the challenge were also estimated, including carcass, average daily gain, and
feed intake traits. Most CBC and several immunoassay traits had heritability estimates ranging from 0.11
to 0.46. Several CBC and immunoassay traits showed moderate to high positive (0.25 to 0.51) or negative
(-0.92 to -0.37) genetic correlations with performance traits under disease. These results suggest that some
CBC and immunoassay traits collected from young-healthy animals before exposure to disease challenge
are potential indicator traits for selecting disease resilient pigs that can maintain better performance under
pathogen exposure.