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Health and immune traits of Basque and Large White pigs housed in a conventional or enriched environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2012

E. Merlot ,
A. Vincent ,
F. Thomas ,
M.-C. Meunier-Salaün ,
M. Damon ,
F. Robert ,
J.-Y. Dourmad ,
B. Lebret  and
A. Prunier
E. Merlot*
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
A. Vincent
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
F. Thomas
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
M.-C. Meunier-Salaün
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
M. Damon
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
F. Robert
Affiliation:
CCPA, DELTAVIT ZA du Bois de Teillay, F-35150 Janzé, France
J.-Y. Dourmad
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
B. Lebret
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
A. Prunier
Affiliation:
INRA, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35590 Saint-Gilles, France Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1348 PEGASE, F-35000 Rennes, France
*
†E-mail: Elodie.Merlot@rennes.inra.fr
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Abstract

Since decades, production traits such as growth rate, feed efficiency or body composition have been drastically increased in pigs by genetic selection. Whether this selection impacted animal robustness is still unclear. In this study, we compared Large White (LW) pigs, a breed submitted to intense genetic selection for production traits, and Basque (B) pigs, a local rustic breed, reared in two different housing environments (conventional v. enriched). Adaptation to housing conditions among each breed was evaluated at the level of endocrine and immune traits. These are known to be impacted by housing conditions and breed; however, the interaction effects between genotype and environment are less described. Animals (20 per breed and housing environment) entered the experiment at 35 kg of live weight. Levels of cortisol, acute-phase inflammatory proteins, immunoglobulins and hydrogen peroxide, blood formula, lymphocyte proliferation and in-vitro cytokine expression were measured at ∼115 kg of live weight. Animals were checked for skin injuries during the growing period. At slaughter, at the average live weight of 145 kg, carcasses were examined for pathological conditions of the respiratory tract. The major result was that the two breeds exhibited differences in response to the housing environment. Among the 24 sanitary, endocrine or immune traits investigated, the housing conditions affected eight variables in both breeds (salivary cortisol at 0700 and 1900 h, severity of pneumonia at slaughter) or only in B pigs (severe skin lesions) or LW pigs (salivary cortisol at 1500 h, granulocyte numbers and lymphocyte/granulocyte ratio and lymphocyte proliferation). These observations strengthen the hypothesis that selection for high meat production level might be associated with an increased susceptibility of animals to environmental stressors.

Keywords

pigbreedhousingcortisolleukocytes
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 6 , Issue 8 , August 2012 , pp. 1290 - 1299
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2012

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