Qiqi Zhou , Shiqiang Huang

Tropical Animal Resources Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572000, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Animal Molecular Breeding, 2024, Vol. 14, No. 2   
Received: 27 Jan., 2024    Accepted: 05 Mar., 2024    Published: 16 Mar., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Pork is a significant component of global meat consumption, and carcass traits directly impact the economic value of meat. Quantitative genetics provides essential tools and methods for understanding and improving these traits. This study explores the application of quantitative genetics in improving pig carcass traits, ex-amining heritability, genetic correlations of carcass traits, and the genetic architecture of economically im-portant carcass traits in pigs. Additionally, this study compares the effectiveness of traditional breeding methods, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection (GS) in improving carcass traits, and pre-sents case studies demonstrating the practical application of these methods. The findings indicate that breed-ing strategies based on genetic information, such as MAS and GS, significantly enhance the efficiency of se-lecting for carcass traits. Case studies further validate the successful application of these strategies in re-al-world pig breeding programs and highlight areas for future research and improvement. By deeply under-standing the principles of quantitative genetics and their role in the selection of pig carcass traits, this study provides a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for future breeding programs. The integration of ad-vanced molecular marker technologies and genetic analysis methods can effectively improve breeding effi-ciency and accuracy, promoting the sustainable development of the pork industry.

Pig carcass traits; Quantitative genetics; Breeding strategies; Marker-assisted selection; Genomic selection