Page 16 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Optimising genomic selection
genomic selection, which requires phe- notype and genotype marker data on a large number of reference ani- mals.
IN pig and poultry breeding programs, the animals that provide food for consumers are usually crossbred, while genomic selec- tion takes place in their purebred parental lines.
Optimisinggenomic selection for crossbred performance
Researchers from Wa- geningen University and Research have written a review paper on how genomic selection can be optimised for the im- provement of crossbred animals.
Crossbreeding is the practice of mating ani- mals from genetically distinct purebred lines to produce crossbreds and is widely adopted in pig and poultry breeding.
However, some gen- eral trends could be ob- served.
Genomic selection
Genetic progress is re- alised in the purebred lines based on purebred phenotypes and geno- types, while the aim is to improve performance of the crossbreds.
First, when purebred data is used, the statis- tical model can be im- proved by accounting for genetic dominance effects.
Livestock popula- tions are continuously improved by a process called selection.
However, purebred and crossbred performance are not perfectly corre- lated, raising questions such as do we need to collect data on cross- bred, can we improve the statistical model and where do the answers to these questions depend on?
Second, genomic se- lection for crossbreeding may benefit from using crossbred instead of purebred data, but only when the genetic corre- lation between purebred and crossbred perform- ance is lower than about 80percent.
With selection, breeders decide on which animals are al- lowed to reproduce, based on estimates of the animals’ genetic value.
Finally, even though genotyping is costly, it is advisable to collect geno- types of crossbred ani- mals that are phenotyped.
Nowadays, such esti- mates are obtained from statistical models that describe the relationship between the perform- ance of animals – that is their phenotype – and the genetic variation in their DNA.
Researchers from Wa- geningen University and Research have summa- rised answers to these questions in a review paper that was recently published in the Journal of Animal Science.
An important argu- ment for this advice is that a single crossbred record can contribute to genetic improvement in all three or four parental lines, justifying the re- quired investment.
This particular method of selection is called
Crossbreeding
The authors found that the optimal strategy is likely to vary across spe- cies, breeding programs and traits.
Crossbreeding is the practice of mating animals from genetically distinct purebred lines to produce crossbreds and is widely adopted in pig and poultry breeding.
These multi-storey piggeries are an example of how China radically re-formatted its pork industry.
African swine fever impacts in 2022
THE spread of African swine fever has deci- mated pork production across the world in re- cent years and has been credited for contributing to the surge in demand for Australian beef.
to continue in 2022. However, ASF is still ac-
had caused many Chinese pig producers to sell their herds in 2021.
who once made up 50 per- cent of China’s pig herd exited the industry.
China has been one of the worst affected by ASF, with its pig producers liq- uidating herds and beef imports increasing dra- matically in the past two years.
China’s herd rebuild from ASF has reportedly been based on the con- struction of medium-to- large piggeries, with many smaller operators perma- nently exiting the industry.
“Those variants were a mild version of the virus, but they were harder to detect and as a result the country saw many more pig losses.”
As China has looked to make up for the loss in pork in recent years, a new market has emerged for the beef industry.
Europe, South America and other parts of Asia have also seen bad out- breaks.
Independent meat ana- lyst Simon Quilty said the rebuild in China was facing major economic challenges, demonstrated by the collapse of real es- tate giant Evergrande.
Mr Quilty said with the harder to detect variants spreading through China, a lot of producers rushed to sell their herds before their animals contracted ASF.
Mr Quilty said beef was growing in popularity with Chinese consumers and was likely to remain a part of their diets after ASF is sorted out.
With herd recovery still hanging in the balance for China and other countries, many will be watching how it unfolds in 2022.
“Hog prices continue to be below breakeven, so whether you’re a small, medium or large opera- tion there will be eco- nomic losses if you start rebuilding herds,” Mr Quilty said.
“We call this trend ‘the rush to the door’, where producers rush to sell ani- mals regardless of whether they were finished,” he said.
“Even with the flood of Chinese pork coming on the market and prices plummeting, beef imports have been increasing and prices have been rising,” he said.
Recently, a Rabobank re- port stated ASF was going to be the biggest market driver for 2022.
“Our expectation is that demand for beef will con- tinue.”
While ASF outbreaks continued in China and Vietnam during 2021, both countries were recov- ering.
“The ability to get fi- nance has become a lot more difficult in recent times, Evergrande has been a good example of that – those problems are undermining market con- fidence.”
“With all that pork coming on the market, prices dropped very quickly, to a point where producers could not breakeven.
Despite the increase in beef imports to China, Australian exports to the country have been de- creasing.
Herds were being re- built in large farms and pork production in- creased strongly in 2021, squeezing out poultry.
Despite ASF taking hold several years ago, Mr Quilty said the virus
“When it dropped below breakeven, it became an economic liquidation, where small operators
“Australia’s role has di- minished, due to the herd rebuild and the licenses that were suspended by China last year,” Mr Quilty said.
NZ pigs possible key to treating Parkinson’s
This trend was expected
Both Rabobank and Mr Quilty are predicting the global cattle herd to con- tract next year.
tive, so herd rebuilding is susceptible to any virus mutations or loosening of biosecurity measures.
“New variants came about because of black- market vaccinations that were put into the general hog population in a des- perate attempt to control ASF,” he said.
“That’s paved the way for medium-to-large op- erators to establish them- selves.”
But Mr Quilty said with demand for beef in China on the opposite trajectory, there was an opportunity for the Australian beef in- dustry.
OF all the places in the world where a cure for Parkinson’s disease may be found, the remote sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands might not have been the first thought, but that’s exactly where biotech company Living Cell Technologies will obtain tissue for their clinical trials.
“The transplantation of living cells from pigs into humans is quite different from implanting pig or- gans, such as a heart, as recently reported in the media.
and, should that be ob- tained, LCT anticipates trial participants will re- ceive treatment by 2024.
“Beef is almost existing in its own market now and it is independent of other meats such as pork and poultry,” he said.
“The risk to the recipi- ents with encapsulated cells is much lower and our patients will not need to take anti-rejection drugs.
Given the highly specific biology of the tissue to be sourced from the Auck- land Islands pigs, the por- cine choroid plexus tissue will not be cheap.
“The Chinese consumer has fallen in love with beef, the introduction was made by ASF, but it now has a market of its own.”
Specifically, Living Cell Technologies has secured a critical service agree- ment with NZeno to breed and maintain pigs that will provide tissue for the third clinical trial of NTCELL, LCT’s treatment targeting Parkinson’s disease.
“Moreover, the pigs being used in our trial are natural animals and are not being genetically manipulated.”
Under the terms of their agreement, LCT will pay an annual fee of $A234,477.50 per annum to NZeno for the ongoing maintenance of the dedi- cated pig facility and herd.
The tissue to be sourced from NZeno is so specific that it must be derived from designated pathogen- free pigs found on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands.
Once the choroid plexus tissue is obtained from the pigs, samples will be sent to a laboratory in Sydney where digestion of the tissue will take place to form single cell clusters for encapsulation.
A milestone payment of $A468,955 is then payable subject to TGA approval to commence the trials and a further $A468,955 upon TGA approval for commercialisation.
These are the same pigs that tissue was sourced from for LCT’s first and second clinical trials in 2012 and 2015 respec- tively.
This will then enable LCT to manufacture NT- CELL under conditions suitable for the clinical trials.
Should all these mile- stones be met and NT- CELL reaches commer- cialisation using NZeno’s porcine tissue, annual royalty payments up to $A2,344,775 would be payable.
Living Cell Technol- ogies executive chairman Professor Beruch Tuch said, “Securing access to NZeno’s DPF herd was a critical milestone as LCT progresses the next clin- ical trial of NTCELL in Parkinson’s disease.”
These trials are likely to be the first time xenotrans- plantation will be carried out in Australia, with the earlier first and second trials having been con- ducted in New Zealand.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that af- fects movement.
In order to progress the trials in Australia, they will require regulatory ap- proval of the Therapeutic Goods Administration
Globally, more than 10 million people live with the degenerative disease, which affects one in every 308 Australians.
Page 16 – Australian Pork Newspaper, February 2022
First appeared on thesentiment.com.au
www.porknews.com.au