Reproductive qualities of French breed large white breed sows of different operating value and level of their discretion

This work aimed to investigate the lifespan and breeding use, reproductive qualities, and the level of their discreteness in sows of the large white breed of French breeding, considering their operational value. Agroprime Holding LLC of the Odesa region, the laboratory of innovative technologies, and experimental livestock facilities of the Institute of Pig Breeding and AIP of the National Academy of Sciences carried out the practical part of the work. Evaluation of sows according to indicators characterizing the level of their adaptation and reproductive qualities was carried out taking into account the following characteristics: life expectancy, days; duration of tribal use, days; received farts; all live piglets were born, head.; multifertility, ch.; high fertility, kg.; nest weight at the time of weaning at 28 days, kg; preservation, %. The selection index of reproductive qualities of the sow (SIRQS) was calculated according to the method of O. M. Tsereniuk et al. (2010), the coefficient of discreteness (D) – Seromolot and Sviatchenko (1984). Biometric processing of research results was carried out according to generally accepted methods. It has been established that sows of the large white breed of French breeding, provided they are kept in production premises using innovative technologies, are characterized by high indicators of the level of adaptation and reproductive qualities. Thus, their life span is 905.7 days, the duration of breeding use is 680.6 days, and in terms of reproductive qualities, they belong to the elite class. A significant difference between the groups of experimental animals was established in terms of life expectancy, duration of breeding use, total number of live piglets, multifertility, and litter weight at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days. The maximum indicators of high fertility (1.34 kg) and preservation of piglets until weaning at the age of 28 days (100 %) were found in sows of the “low operational value” category. The coefficient of discreteness of life expectancy and breeding use in sows of I, II, and III experimental groups is equal to 0.406, 0.677, and 0.633, reproductive qualities – 0.828, 0.882, and 0.903, respectively. Coefficients of paired correlation between life span and breeding use of sows and signs of reproductive qualities range from -0.055 to +0.904. The maximum increase in additional production was obtained from sows of the “high operational value” category – +6.80 %, and its value is +355.57 UAH/head/ farrowing.


Introduction
It has been established that an essential factor in increasing the production of high-quality pork is the intensification of the breeding process in the field of pig breeding (Chen et al., 2004;Tsereniuk et al., 2010;Biriukova & Makovska, 2011;Tsereniuk at al., 2018;Tsereniuk & Tsereniuk, 2018;Khramkova, 2019;Dudka, 2020;Xu et al., 2021;Li et al., 2021).It provides for the introduction of innovative methods of evaluation and selection of highly productive animals, the use of animals of foreign breeding, as well as the study of the level of their operational value in the conditions of industrial technology of keeping (Kim et al., 2000;Fontanesi et al., 2010;Rodríguez et al., 2013;Herrero-Medrano et al., 2015;Tsybenko et al., 2021;Vashchenko & Berezovskyi, 2021;Khalak et al., 2021Khalak et al., , 2022Khalak et al., , 2023)).However, the analysis of literary data indicates the presence of a small number of scientific works, which give the results of research on the life expectancy, duration of breeding use, and operational value of sows of foreign origin, their reproductive qualities, and the level of phenotypic consolidation of quantitative traits with a low heritability coefficient (Dudka & Karvat-Citation: Zasukha, L. V., Voloshchuk, V. M., Khalak, V. I., Gutyj, B. V., & Bordun, O. M. (2024).Reproductive qualities of French breed large white breed sows of different operating value and level of their discretion.Ukrainian Journal of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, 7(1), 3-8.ska, 2020;Ros-Freixedes et al., 2021;Khalak, 2022;Mykhalko et al., 2023;Khalak & Gutyj, 2023).
The above determines the relevance and vector of our research.
The work aims to investigate the life expectancy and breeding use, reproductive qualities, and the level of their discreteness in sows of the large white breed of French breeding of different operational values.

Materials and methods
The research was conducted at Agroprime Holding LLC of the Odesa region and the laboratory of innovative technologies and experimental livestock facilities of the Institute of Pig Breeding and AIP of the National Academy of Sciences.
The assessment of sows of the large white breed by indicators of reproductive qualities was carried out, taking into account the following quantitative characteristics: life expectancy, days; duration of tribal use, days; received farts; all live piglets were born, head.; multifertility, hd.; high fertility, kg.; nest weight at the time of weaning at 28 days, kg; preservation, %.
The operational value of sows was determined according to the scale shown in Table 1.The feeding and keeping conditions of the sows of the experimental groups were identical and corresponded to zootechnical standards.
Biometric processing of the received data was carried out according to generally accepted methods (Kovalenko et al., 2010;Petrovska et al., 2022).
The strength of correlations between traits was determined according to the Chaddock scale (Sidorova et al., 2003) (Table 2).

Table 2
Chaddock's scale for grading the strength of the correlation between quantitative traits The value of the correlation coefficient Correlation strength 0.1-0.3Weak 0.3-0.5 Tolerant 0.5-0.7 Tolerant 0.7-0.9High 0.9-0.99Very high
The results of calculating the discreteness coefficients of life expectancy, breeding use, and signs of reproductive qualities are shown in Table 4.
The coefficients of discreteness of life span and breeding use in sows of different operational values are pretty high and range from 0.406 to 0.677.The specified regularity was established in the animals of the experimental groups based on the signs of reproductive qualities.
Coefficients of pairwise correlation between traits characterizing the level of adaptation of sows and indicators of reproductive qualities range from -0.055 (life expectancy × high fertility) to +0.904 (duration of breeding use × obtained farrowing) (Table 5).Reliable correlations were established between the following pairs of traits: lifespan × number of farrowing (r = +0.896± 0.0201, tr = 44.49);life expectancy × live piglets born in total (r = +0.847± 0.0289, tr = 29.34);life expectancy × fertility (r = +0.297± 0.0931, tr = 3.19); life expectancy × weight of the nest at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days × (r = +0.306± 0.0926, tr = 3.31); duration of breeding use × obtained farrowing (r = +0.904± 0.0187, tr = 48.42);duration of breeding use × live piglets born in total (r = +0.854± 0.0276, tr = 30.89);duration of breeding use × multifertility (r = +0.299± 0.0930, tr = 3.21); duration of breeding use × nest weight at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days × (r = +0.304± 0.0927, tr = 3.28); The calculation of the economic efficiency of the research results shows that the maximum increase in additional production was obtained from sows of the "high operational value" category +6.80 % (I experimental group) (Table 6).The value of the additional products obtained from the sows of the specified group equals UAH 355.57/head/ farrowing.

Conclusions
1.It has been established that sows of the large white breed of French selection, provided they are kept in production premises using innovative technologies, are characterized by high indicators of the level of adaptation and reproductive qualities.Thus, their life span is 905.7 days, the duration of breeding use is 680.6 days, and in terms of reproductive qualities, they belong to the elite class.
2. Taking into account the intrabreed differentiation in terms of the operational value of sows, a reliable difference between the groups was established according to the following indicators: "life expectancy, months", "duration of breeding use, months", "total live piglets obtained, head", "multifertility, head", "weight of the nest at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days, kg".The maximum indicators of high fertility (1.34 kg) and preservation of piglets until weaning at the age of 28 days (100 %) were found in sows of the "low operational value" category.
3. The coefficient of discreteness of life expectancy and breeding use in sows of I, II, and III experimental groups equals 0.406, 0.677, and 0.633, signs characterizing repro-ductive qualities -0.828, 0.882, and 0.903, respectively.
5. Coefficients of pairwise correlation between life span and breeding use of sows and signs of reproductive qualities range from -0.055 to +0.904.
6.The maximum increase in additional production was obtained from sows of the "high operational value" category -+6.80 %, which is +355.57UAH/head/farrowing.

Table 1
Scale for evaluating the operational value of sows

Table 3
Reproductive qualities of sows of large white breed of different operational value

Table 4
Coefficient of discreteness (D) of life expectancy, breeding use, and signs of reproductive qualities in sows of different operational value

Table 5
Pairwise correlation coefficients between long-term adaptation and reproductive qualities of sows of the large white breed Note: 1 -farrows were obtained, 2 -live piglets were born, total; 3 -multifertility, goal; 4 -high fertility, kg.; 5 -the weight of the nest at the time of at the age of 28 days, kg; 6 -preservation, %

Table 6
Economic efficiency of research results * -the selling price of young pigs at the time of the study was 79.50 UAH per 1 kg of live weight