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Pig pacifying
gene for better bacon
The team at Purdue University has already had some success identifying genes for behaviour in chickens and quail. In intensive pig farming, the animals are kept up to eight per pen. Under these conditions, normal social interaction is distorted. The result is that one or two animals dominate and prevent the others from getting enough food. Professors William Muir and Allan Schinckel say if the genes which control who is the “boss hog” could be switched off, the pigs would put less energy into fighting, and would increase their lean growth by as much as 25 per cent without any extra feeding. "The more pigs you have in a pen, the slower their growth rate due to stress and aggression," said Professor Schinckel. "Even having them together for 48 hours slows the growth rate of the pigs for two weeks". In previous research on chickens, Professor Muirs found that competition for food had a significant effect on animal survival and production. This led to the discovery of genes for behaviour in vertebrates. The researchers plan to use a genome scan to find genes in pigs that also influence behaviour. "We've been able to use this method in quail to achieve more than a 200 percent gain in growth," Professor Muir said. "We know that this isn't just pie in the sky." "Now we can use either marker-assisted selection to integrate those genes into breeding nucleuses to create less aggressive pigs, or we can clone the genes by using fine gene mapping techniques," he says. "Then, we can directly move those genes into pig populations." More
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