Backgrounder on Bio-Hypor
January 22, 2004
The Europeans have already realised its benefits, and now Canadian producers will get their chance. Since its merger with Genex Swine Group, pig breeding company Hypor is bringing its Bio-Hypor breeding program to Canada. The program has shown good success since its introduction in Hypor’s own breeding centres in the early 1990s, and internationally over the past five years.
The Bio-Hypor concept is based on the dual benefits of reducing disease risks on farms with the genetic progress made by using Hypor’s EuriBLUP technology. “Bio-security is one of the major concerns of large farming operations. Entry of new breeding stock always presents a risk to the health status, even when all possible precautions are taken,” explained Benny van Haandel, head of Hypor’s R &D. He said that BioHypor enables producers to upkeep a genetic level, without the need for routine entry of animals. A one-time entry of top genetic gilts is supplied to start the program. After that, only semen and data are brought onto the farm.
On Bio-Hypor farms, a complete crossbreeding scheme is applied, yielding a two-way cross hybrid sow. Great Grand Parent-sows (GGP) are mated pure to produce the next generation Great Grand and Grand parents, Grand Parent-sows (GP) are mated to produce hybrid Parent Stock (F1’s), Parent Stock sows are inseminated with semen from terminal cross boar lines to produce the fattener.
Individual performance data collected on the farms is entered into sow management recording systems and periodically exchanged to the central breeding database managed by Hypor. This data links the local herd with the central nucleus herds in order to calculate BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) breeding values with the EuriBLUP® system. “As a result, highly accurate breeding values are available. It enables the on-farm-breeding program to select top animals for pure line mating. Up-to-date breeding values are supplied to the farms via the Internet to enable maximal accuracy at selection moments,” said van Haandel.
Through the Bio-Hypor program participants have access to the best available purebred maternal sires from the Hypor AI Stud. The program starts with high health animals and guarantees higher performance and lower than average losses combined with lower veterinarian costs. van Haandel said producers benefit from regular technical support visits and benchmark comparisons against other producers within the system. This tool enables them to steer their program and make tailor-made final products.
Besides generating maximum technical performance and reducing the cost of production, van Haandel said another advantage of Bio-Hypor is that it is a moneymaker, especially when compared to the investments required for conventional replacement systems. Bio-Hypor producers do not need to regularly purchase breeding stock. This reduces the high veterinarian cost due to disease risks and also reduces reduced performance due to lower health status. With Bio-Hypor, producers don’t experience the conventional delay in dissemination of genetic superiority from GGP to F1 level.
van Haandel has seen many breeding program in his career, but he said that Bio-Hypor is the best. “Bio-Hypor is a unique breeding program. It drives superior genetic progress and maintains and improves the health status of your herd. Improving sow prolificacy is easy with BioHypor,” he said.
For more information or photos, contact:
Marc Broadbent
(306) 791-9478
Marc.Broadbent@hypor.com
