Associated Press
05-31-06
Project will help experts 'build' more tasty pigs
$10 million grant helps gene-mapping endeavor track down vital data
By Paul Elias, Associated Press
AMES, Iowa -- Max Rothschild has been trying to "build" a better pig for almost
30 years, since he took a job cleaning up after the hogs at his alma mater, the
University of California at Davis.
He's now a renowned swine scientist who has traded the dirty pigpens of his
undergraduate days for a glistening Iowa State University laboratory dedicated
to producing tastier chops, safer pork and healthier pigs.
Rothschild is part of a national collaboration that earlier this year received a $10
million federal grant to map pig genes. Researchers from the University of
Illinois-led project promise it will help take the guesswork out of breeding.
The idea is to find and exploit the genetic variations of the best pigs, which
Rothschild and like-minded agricultural researchers say will radically change the
industry.
Already, chicken and cow genomes -- complete genetic maps of each species -have been published, and race horse breeders have applied to the National
Human Genome Research Institute for a grant to run an equine DNA sequence.
Most animal genetic sequences now are done with the support of the institute
because of its expertise, and comparing animal genomes to the human genome
helps with medical research.
Mapping the roughly 30,000 genes in each animal requires extracting the
genetic material from its blood. The DNA then is replicated many times over and
run through a computer known as a sequencer, which spits out the swine's
genetic makeup in a code of four letters -- T, A, C, G -- representing the
nucleotides that comprise DNA.
Even before the pig genome is completed sometime next year, top commercial
producers such as Pig Improvement Co. and Monsanto Inc. are using preliminary
results from genetic screens to see if they can determine which pigs are the
tastiest before they are butchered. The screens also will be used to manage
herds and make breeding decisions, among other improvements.
"They can now look inside the pig," Rothschild said. "They are both building
better pigs with this technology."
Rothschild previously discovered a gene variation that causes sows to produce
more piglets per litter than average. He developed a test for the variation that
now is widely used throughout the industry, and he said it could be useful in the
Third World.
"The developing world wants to eat meat," Rothschild said. "And there's only one
way to produce it -- grow more animals."