Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci for Hematological Traits on Pig Chromosome 10

This study was aimed to identify Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for haematological traits in pig chromosome 10 and facilitate the cloning of candidate genes underlying the QTLs. Hematological traits are essential parameters for evaluating the health status of animals and play a extremely important role in disease resistance. In this study, three main components, leukocyte traits, erythrocyte traits and platelet traits were measured in a composite pig population consisting of 445 pigs of three breeds (Landrace, Large White and Songliao Black Pig) distributed in 16 boar families, before and after vaccination with modified live CSF (classical swine fever) vaccine. A partial genome scan for mapping Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for these traits was performed by genotyping 13 microsatellite markers on chromosome 10. Through a linear mixed model and the permutation for empirical threshold values, 4 significant QTLs on chromosome 10 were identified affecting hematocrit (HCT), hemoglobin (HGB), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) and blood platelet counts (PLT) (p<0.05), respectively. Our results confirms that haematological traits variation differs between the three pig breeds and variations of HCT, HGB, MCV, PLT are associated with the 81 similar to 133 cM region in chromosomal 10.