Estimating genetic parameters of digital behavior traits and their relationship with production traits in purebred pigs

Abstract

With the introduction of digital phenotyping and high-throughput data, traits that were previously difficult or impossible to measure directly have become easily accessible, offering the opportunity to enhance the efficiency and rate of genetic gain in animal production. It is of interest to assess how behavioral traits are indirectly related to the production traits during the performance testing period. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of behavior data extracted from day-wise video recordings and estimate the genetic parameters of behavior traits and their phenotypic and genetic correlations with production traits in pigs. Behavior was recorded for 70 days after on-test at about 10 weeks of age and ended at off-test for 2008 female purebred pigs, totaling 119,812 day-wise records. Behavior traits included time spent eating, drinking, laterally lying, sternally lying, sitting, standing, and meters of distance traveled. A quality control procedure was created for algorithm training and adjustment, standardizing recording hours, removing culled animals, and filtering unrealistic records. Production traits included average daily gain (ADG), back fat thickness (BF), and loin depth (LD). Single-trait linear models were used to estimate heritabilities of the behavior traits and two-trait linear models were used to estimate genetic correlations between behavior and production traits. The results indicated that all behavior traits are heritable, with heritability estimates ranging from 0.19 to 0.57, and showed low-to-moderate phenotypic and genetic correlations with production traits. Two-trait linear models were also used to compare traits at different intervals of the recording period. To analyze the redundancies in behavior data during the recording period, the averages of various recording time intervals for the behavior and production traits were compared. Overall, the average of the 55- to 68-day recording interval had the strongest phenotypic and genetic correlation estimates with the production traits. Digital phenotyping is a new and low-cost method to record behavior phenotypes, but thorough data cleaning procedures are needed. Evaluating behavioral traits at different time intervals offers a deeper insight into their changes throughout the growth periods and their relationship with production traits, which may be recorded at a less frequent basis.