Genetic enhancement is very vital in improving performance, profitability and sustainability in pig production systems. Traditional phenotypic selection has been the basis of pig breeding since the ancient times but its reliance on visible traits, longer generations and weak predictability among young animals restrict its effectiveness. Genomic selection, which involves dense molecular markers to estimate genomic breeding values has developed to be a sophisticated tool that enhances the accuracy of selection and speed up genetic development. This paper contrasts phenotypic selection and genomic selection using simulation-based models which include pseudo-BLUP and genomic prediction algorithms. Findings indicated that genomic selection has much superior accuracy and reduced time to generation that translates to higher yearly genetic advantage of economically significant characteristics. These results support the need to include genomic instruments in current pig breeding initiatives to achieve a higher level of productivity, sustainability and economic reliability.
Koech Vincent Kipkorir (Wed,) studied this question.