A pig breeder would like to increase the length of his pigs. The average body le

Question

A pig breeder would like to increase the length of his pigs. The average body length in his population is 130 cm and ranges from 100 cm to 160 cm. He has kept records of the body length of all the pigs that he has bred and is able to perform a regression between father and offspring phenotypes. He finds that the slope of the regression between paternal and offspring phenotypes is b = 0.25.

a) What is the narrow sense heritability for body length in this population?

b) The breeder decides to breed only with pigs that are at least 140 cm long and the average length of these pigs is 147 cm. What is the expected body length of pigs after selection?

c) Which factors should the breeder consider in his decision on the minimum body length of pigs that he chooses for breeding, and why?

Explanation / Answer

a) One-parent offspring regression
h2 = 2b= 2 * 0.25 = 0.5

b) Selection differential:
s= mean of selected parents

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