Inbreeding depression and its effect on sperm quality traits in Pietrain pigs

Abstract

In most cases, inbreeding is expected to have unfavourable effects on traits in livestock. The consequences of inbreeding depression could be substantial, primarily in reproductive and sperm quality traits, and thus lead to decreased fertility. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (i) to compute inbreeding coefficients using pedigree (F_PED) and genomic data based on runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the genome (F_ROH) of Austrian Pietrain pigs, and (ii) to assess inbreeding depression on four sperm quality traits. In total, 74,734 ejaculate records from 1034 Pietrain boars were used for inbreeding depression analyses. Traits were regressed on inbreeding coefficients using repeatability animal models. Pedigree-based inbreeding coefficients were lower than ROH-based inbreeding values. The correlations between pedigree and ROH-based inbreeding coefficients ranged from 0.186 to 0.357. Pedigree-based inbreeding affected only sperm motility while ROH-based inbreeding affected semen volume, number of spermatozoa, and motility. For example, a 1% increase in pedigree inbreeding considering 10 ancestor generations (F_PED10) was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with a 0.231% decrease in sperm motility. Almost all estimated effects of inbreeding on the traits studied were unfavourable. It is advisable to properly manage the level of inbreeding to avoid high inbreeding depression in the future. Further, analysis of effects of inbreeding depression for other traits, including growth and litter size for the Austrian Pietrain population is strongly advised.