Genetic parameters and potential of reducing tail and ear damage in pigs through breeding

Ear and tail damage are heritable traits and are moderately positively correlated. The EBV for the evaluated traits related to ear and tail damage showed moderate accuracies, minor dispersion, and no bias. We hypothesize that from a welfare perspective, ear and tail damage on the original scale are the relevant breeding goal traits. For ear damage on the original scale, the highest response to selection can be expected when selecting on the trait itself, whereas for tail damage on the original scale, selection on summed damage showed the highest gain. Results from this study show that genetic improvement of the direct genetic effect of ear and tail damage is possible.