CONNECTION BETWEEN PERFORMANCE TESTING METHODS IN HUNGARIAN PIG BREEDING BASED ON GENETIC CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS

Genetic analysis was conducted on Hungarian pig seed stocks. The breeds, which were used in the investigation, were Hungarian Large White, Hungarian Landrace, Duroc, and Pietrain respectively. Regarding the field test (own performance test) 40391; 54523; 4318; 3501; different animals were recorded in the above mentioned breeds. Meanwhile in the station test 3911; 2457; 695; 568 records were used concerning the same breeds. Genetic parameters were estimated using the software VCE 4 developed by Groeneveld (1998). Variance components were obtained by running a joint model (field and station test). During the analysis special attention was given to the received genetic correlation coefficients in order to compare the results of the field and station tests respectively. Genetic correlation coefficients of 0.52; 0.36; 0,43; 0.80 were found between the age at the time of the test (field test) and days of fattening (station test) having the same order of the breeds as previously. The moderately high genetic correlation coefficients between these previously mentioned traits (representing the growing intensity) justify that these methods are based upon each other and make the efficient selection possible. Among the traits representing meat quality genetic correlation coefficients of –0.13; -0.41; -0.63; +0.13 were found between the average backfat depth (field test) and valuable cuts (station test) respectively. The high variability of the coefficients suggests the need for further investigation of this area and also the importance of precise measurement of the average backfat depth since a possible imprecise measurement of this trait might be the reason for the received variability.