TITLE:
Genetic Screening of Halothane Gene on Selected Philippine Native Pig Herds
AUTHORS:
Sherwin Dapiawen Matias, Maureen Basa Gajeton, Ester Battad Flores
KEYWORDS:
Halothane Gene, Porcine Stress Syndrome, Native Pig
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Genetics,
Vol.13 No.3,
September
12,
2023
ABSTRACT: The establishment of nucleus herds (NHs) of Native
Pigs (NPs) at various R&D stations in the Philippines is currently being
undertaken for food security and genetic conservation advocacy. Marker-assisted
selection (MAS) is being utilized to identify individuals carrying favorable
alleles of genes associated with production traits and screen out genetic
defects (GD) for breeding purposes. Porcine Stress Syndrome (PSS) caused by a
mutation in Halothane (HAL) gene is a GD frequently found in commercial breeds
that when expressed, causes pale, soft, exudative (PSE) meat. PSE is inferior
quality meat undesirable in the market causing economic losses to the swine
industry. Thus, this study was conducted to screen the HAL gene through
mutagenically separated-polymerase chain reaction (MSPCR) in selected NP herds
and assessed its repeatability in local breeds. Results showed that out of 577
screened individuals, 543 (94.11%) were normal (NN), 0 (0%) were homozygous
mutant (nn) and 34 (5.89%) were heterozygous carriers (Nn). Therefore, the optimized PSS screening protocol
using MSPCR is also applicable to local breeds. As such, the availability of
genetic tests for PSS could be useful in improving the Philippine NPs breeding
selection and inhibiting or eliminating PSS mutant incidence within its nucleus
herd.