Animal Genetics Division, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243122, India.
1Veterinary College, GAU, S.K. Nagar-385 506, BK, Gujarat, India.
Data on 937 Landrace and 355 Large White Yorkshire pigs for carcass traits were analyzed from All India Coordinated Research Project on pigs, by path coefficient analysis. Path analysis revealed that the live weight at slaughter and dressing percentage had a maximum direct effect on carcass weight at genetic and phenotypic levels in LR and LWY pigs. But, the direct effect of BFT was observed negative and of high magnitude in Landrace pigs, suggested that selection and breeding for low BFT automatically improved the carcass weight, while reverse trend was observed in Large White pigs. Therefore LWT, DPE and BFT considered to the important for maximizing the carcass traits in Landrace pigs and LWT and DPE in Large White pigs. The indirect effect of carcass length and back fat thickness through live weight were observed maximum as compared to other indirect effects, suggested that selection based on carcass length and back fat thickness might bring an improvement in carcass weight. The magnitude of residual effect showed that some other traits also influence the carcass weight, which were not included in the present study. However, live weight, dressing percentage, back fat thickness and carcass length seems to be important traits for exploitation under direct/indirect selection for the improvement of harcass weight in both the breeds.
