Organization and evolution of pig and
poultry breeding sectors
The modern poultry industry has a typical
hierarchical structure with several distinct tiers.
Breeding companies based mainly in Europe
and North America, with subsidiaries in major
production regions, own the pure lines. They
have to keep the whole production chain
in mind – hatcheries, egg and meat poultry
growers, processing plants, retailers and
consumers. Hatcheries (multipliers) are located
near population centres around the world. They
receive either parents or grandparents from
the breeders as day-old chicks, and produce
the final crosses for egg producers and broiler,
turkey or duck growers. Today, egg processing
plants, slaughterhouses and feed suppliers have
developed contractual relationships with egg
producers and poultry growers, which provide
the latter with better financial security, but at the
cost of reduced initiative and freedom.
The pig sector has a similar pyramidal structure,
which is largely the result of the introduction of
cross-breeding, AI and specialized breeding farms.
However, some differences exist between the
pig and the poultry sectors. For example, a pig
producer will typically obtain the “commercial”
animals by mating sows from a specialized dam
line and boars from a specialized sire line – both
genders being bought from the breeding company
(and not from a multiplier as in poultry).
In contrast to poultry, there are still breeding
associations for pigs, and national genetic
evaluation is performed. While genetic
evaluations for the large breeding companies
may be performed in-house, genetic evaluations
at the pure-breed level are conducted by
governmental institutions (e.g. by the National
Swine Registry in the United States of America) or
breed associations.
STATE OF THE ART IN TH
Pig and poultry breeding schemes are
sometimes referred to as “commercial” breeding
programmes because of the corporate ownership
structure of these companies. Over the years,
these programmes have amalgamated to become
large corporations. In poultry, for example, only
two to three groups of primary breeders account
for about 90 percent of the layers, broilers and
turkeys produced annually. Furthermore, some of
these companies are owned by the same group.
The pig breeding industry has more breeding
companies and fewer large ones (such as PIC
and Monsanto), but is following the same trend.
The recent entry of the giant Monsanto into
this sector is a clear indication of this tendency.
Because of the competitive nature of the business
and the high level of investment, “commercial”
breeding companies are usually at the forefront
in the application of technologies. These leading
companies are on the verge of incorporating
genomic information in their breeding
programmes, at a time when many breeders are
merely discussing the feasibility of the approach.