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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #285671
Title: Characterization of a novel porcine stress syndrome

Author
item Rohrer, Gary
item Brown-Brandl, Tami
item Nonneman, Danny - Dan

Submitted to: Swine Improvement Federation Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2013
Publication Date: 9/1/2014
Citation: Rohrer, G.A., Brown-Brandl, T.M., Nonneman, D.J. 2014. Characterization of a novel porcine stress syndrome [PowerPoint]. In Proceedings: National Swine Improvement Federation Conference and Annual Meeting, December 1-2, 2011, Lincoln, Nebraska. NSIF Volume 36. Available: http://www.nsif.com/Conferences/2011/pdf/Characterization%20of%20a%20novel%20porcine%20stress%20syndrome.pdf

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Technical abstract: A novel transportation stress syndrome has been identified in the USMARC swine population. The genetic cause of this stress syndrome has been mapped to the dystrophin gene and a marker that is predictive in the USMARC population developed. To determine if this genetic defect is associated with additional production losses, animals in the USMARC population that had died during production of no apparent cause or if stress was believed to be the cause of death were genotyped for the predictive genetic marker. The defective allele was six-fold higher than expected in animals whose cause of death was listed as stress. If the animal died between 40 and 125 days of age and stress was the reported cause, then the defective allele was eight-fold higher than expected. For animals whose cause of death was unknown, the defective allele was only marginally higher than expected. However, if these animals died between 60 and 100 days of age, the defective allele was three-fold greater than expected. In conclusion, the defect in the dystrophin gene may have contributed to the death of 65% of the pigs where stress was implicated as the cause of death, but only about 25% of the pigs with an unknown cause of death. Therefore, elimination of this defect in the USMARC population would reduce production losses, but more work needs to be done to determine if this defect causes losses in commercial pig populations.