Abstract

LOPEZ, Nelson  and  GALINDEZ, Rafael. Evaluation of the accumulated prolificacy of the sow and accumulated weight of the litters at birth in the breed groups large White, Landrace and Crossbred. Rev. Fac. Cienc. Vet. [online]. 2011, vol.52, n.2, pp.099-108. ISSN 0258-6576.

With the purpose of evaluating the productive life of Large White (LW) and Landrace (LR) sows and their reciprocal crosses, 2.444 records of prolificacy (TAN) and aggregated weight of the litter at birth (PAN) were analyzed. The sow records came from a commercial farm located in the State of Yaracuy, Venezuela. The data were adjusted by month, period of year, and farrowing number. For the final analysis, the years of birth of the sows were grouped into two periods: 1986- 1998 and 1999-2005. Sows with a chance of at least delivering three farrowings were considered. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) by the restricted maximum likelihood procedure was performed. The effects included in the analysis were: breed group of the sow (GRC: 1… 4), birth period of the sow (PN: 1, 2), month of birth of the sow (MN: 1 …12), the GRC*MN interaction, and the age at first farrowing as covariate. The adjusted and non-adjusted TAN averages obtained were 39.27 and 39.3, respectively; and the adjusted and nonadjusted PAN averages were 59.5 and 59.58 kg, in that order. The sows of LR*LW (42.69 piglets and 63.32 kg) and LW (41.44 piglets and 62.57 kg) breed group were higher (P<0.01) in TAN and PAN, respectively. There was a statistically significant effect of PN, PM, and GRC*MN. Heterosis was significant for TAN, with a value of 5.9%. It is concluded that purebred sows and their crosses whose genotype have alleles from mothers of the LW breed, are superior for the characteristics assessed in this research.

Keywords : Conception rate; labels; birth; breeds (animals); sows; crossbreeding; Yaracuy; animal breeding; hybrid vigor.