Canadian Center for Swine Improvement

Comments

The Canadian pork industry is an important part of Canadian agriculture. It produces over 16 million hogs each year. Exports of Canadian pork, live hogs and breeding stock were worth more than $1.2 billion in 1995.

The success of the Canadian industry, especially in export markets, owes much to advances made in Canadian genetic improvements and high health standards in the breeding sector. In the first half of the 1990's, genetic improvement was responsible for 80 percent of all the progress in backfat thickness and 67 percent in growth rate.

Performance testing first began in Canada in 1928 and the Canadian National Swine Improvement Program evolved rapidly in the 1960's and 1970's. In 1985, the Canadian program was the first national genetic improvement program to use "Best Linear Unbiased Prediction" (BLUP) animal model technology. The Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement, or CCSI, is the national body in Canada that co-ordinates the Canadian National Swine Improvement Program. CCSI took over the responsibility from the federal government in 1995.

CCSI is a non-profit corporation whose Board of Directors is made up of the most important associations in the Canadian pork industry. Active members of CCSI are the Canadian Pork Council, representing the interests of commercial producers, the Canadian Meat Council, representing packers, the Canadian Swine Breeders Association, representing breeders, as well as the regional swine improvement centres in Western Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. The Government of Canada is an associate member.

CCSI works in partnership with all these organizations as well as Canadian universities and research institutions on co-operative research and development, technology transfer and innovation as well as genetic services and evaluations.