Meeting the needs of rich and poor: The needs, opportunities and trends in pig genetic improvement

Global demand for meat by 2020 is set to increase in all regions but especially in China and S.E. Asia and also in Latin America, where the growth primarily will be in pig and poultry meat (Delgado et al 1999). The on-going rapid increase in demand for pork is accompanied by rapid intensification of pig production, driven by economies of scale, increased fed efficiency and ability to meet higher health standards of intensive systems. Although the growth in pig production causes an increase in the area of cropland used to supply feed for pigs, this is partially off-set by the large improvements in feed efficiency achieved by intensive production systems and modern high feed efficiency pig genotypes. The continued growth and intensification of pig production will shape the selection indexes used by breeders. Increased attention may need to be given to optimizing response to fit different environments (e.g. Knap and Wang, 2006), and improve quality, but, the industry will continue to demand the lowest cost of production of saleable meat. Intensification itself provides a significant part of the gains achieved (economy of scale reducing fixed costs per unit). The economic trends and drivers suggest that large-scale production will eventually supply the largest proportion of the world's pork, and smallholder systems (1 to 5 sows) and small enterprises (20 to 150 sows) will likely reduce in number. This will likely lead to use of a limited range of genotypes, driven by greater uniformity of production systems and demand for increased consistency of product (for example, consistency can be improved significantly by the use of AI from specific breeds or lines and limiting the number of sires used within a supply chain). This will bring with it a significant threat to genetic diversity, especially of breeds adapted to specific environments or production systems.