Mutations with known links to pork quality defects in Norwegian and German pig populations

With heritable PSE (hal+) being largely eradicated in many countries, pork quality defects and their linkage to known mutations have received less attention in the last decade. We address this by mapping the frequency of four known mutations (200Q, 199 V, hal+, PHKG1) in heterogenous Norwegian and German pig populations (n = 136/61). Genotyping for mutations was done by PCR-RFLP analyses and Illumina chip genotyping. We found a high prevalence of pigs with at least one of the four tested mutations for Norwegian and German samples (60%, 77%). For Norwegian samples, we confirm known links of 200Q and PHKG1 with Hampshire and Duroc genetics, respectively. For Germany, we show that Piétrain pigs can still be heterozygous carriers of hal + . In all, our data points to a relatively high abundance of mutations that affect pork quality in both countries. The high prevalence of individual mutations may contribute to recent ham quality defects.