Genetic parameters and associated genomic regions for global immunocompetence and other health-related traits in pigs

The inclusion of health-related traits, or functionally associated genetic markers, in pig breeding programs could contribute to produce more robust and disease resistant animals. The aim of the present work was to study the genetic determinism and genomic regions associated to global immunocompetence and health in a Duroc pig population. For this purpose, a set of 30 health-related traits covering immune (mainly innate), haematological, and stress parameters were measured in 432 healthy Duroc piglets aged 8 weeks. Moderate to high heritabilities were obtained for most traits and significant genetic correlations among them were observed. A genome wide association study pointed out 31 significantly associated SNPs at whole-genome level, located in six chromosomal regions on pig chromosomes SSC4, SSC6, SSC17 and SSCX, for IgG, γδ T-cells, C-reactive protein, lymphocytes phagocytic capacity, total number of lymphocytes, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular haemoglobin. A total of 16 promising functionally-related candidate genes, including CRP, NFATC2, PRDX1, SLA, ST3GAL1, and VPS4A, have been proposed to explain the variation of immune and haematological traits. Our results enhance the knowledge of the genetic control of traits related with immunity and support the possibility of applying effective selection programs to improve immunocompetence in pigs.