PIC, an international leader in the provision of continuous genetic improvement in swine breeding stock, will implement relationship-based genomic selection in all its crossbred boar products, effective in August. PIC will continue its differentiated implementation of genomic technology and be the first entity to use relationship-based genomic selection in all pure and crossbred products and in every trait impacting selection decisions.
“PIC continues to lead the global livestock industry in utilization of genomics to accelerate genetic gain for our customers. This implementation step builds on our previous implementation in all pure lines and will increase the accuracy of our selection process. It will subsequently increase our rate of progress by an additional 35 percent, versus other industry programs” said Dr. Matt Culbertson, director of product development for PIC.
Dr. Bill Christianson, COO PIC, added: “PIC is focused on making the investments needed to bring our customers’ greater product differentiation and performance potential. This latest advancement is another step in our quest to never stop improving and to deliver on our goal of increased profit potential for our customers.”
PIC’s relationship-based genomic selection, also known as single-step genomic selection, uses a proprietary genotyping and statistical platform to calculate how related animals are at the genetic level. It will increase the accuracy of evaluating animals as parents of the next generation. PIC began implementing relationship-based genomic selection in its pure lines in the winter of 2012-2013 and completed full implementation for all nucleus populations and traits in the fall of 2013.
