GENETICS AND PIG PRODUCTIVITY.

Improving genetic lines not only improves production but it creates disease free/resistant lines that maintains herd health and ensures profitability.A lot of pig producers sort and select breeds that will be stable in their environment and produce optimally,this they often do by importing breeding stocks or crossing various lines to come up with that that is suitable for their environment. A pig breeding network in Thai is producing genetic lines that are suitable and adaptable to Asian countries; The siam pigs run by Dr Sakchai Topanurak, Chulalongkorn University and major driving force behind SiamPigs. The goal of SiamPigs' is not only to improve production performance, but also to solve endemic and chronic herd health problems. This concept was borne out of the fact that Western pig breeds do not always come fully prepared for the Asian reality as they are full of various pathogens and different market needs,the need to select genetic lines that are resistant to disease and yielding higher lean meat percentages. The operations of breeding systems ensures a nucleus herd is free from diseases. Genetics from a high health breeding nucleus will subsequently be distributed to a production herd. Breeders lower in the breeding pyramid of course always try to keep their production herds as free from diseases as a nucleus herd would be – and also try to maintain similar high health standards, e.g. by applying strict bio security measures. This is done to enable the pigs to perform to their full genetic potential so that they can deliver effective and competitive products. SiamPigs, established in Thailand, is a network of pig producers using improved genetics, disease tolerant and disease resistant pigs as a tool. The group's goal is not only to improve production performance, but also to solve endemic and chronic herd health problems. Many pig farms have successfully reduced the risk of infection from outside the farm by applying a model that revolves around the principle of 'one nucleus, one farm' . SiamPigs developed its own breeds – Duroc line 929, Large White line 7788, Landrace line 4701 and Siam Kurobuta, with the productivity of the network's members being on par with the world's top producers. Farms in the network vary in size, starting from 400 to more than 10,000 sows. The network covers more than 100 farms in Thailand, with over 250,000 sows using breeding stock and semen developed by SiamPigs.