Screening of Pig (Sus scrofa) Bactericidal Permeability-Increasing Protein (BPI) Gene as Marker for Disease Resistance

ABSTRACT

Salmonella infection can cause septicemia, acute or chronic enteritis and wasting in weaned pigs, but may occur in other age groups. The bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) gene plays an important role in the natural defense of the host and is found to be associated with resistance/susceptibility to Salmonella infection and identified as a candidate gene for disease resistance breeding in pig. This study was conducted to screen the resistance and/or susceptibility of pigs to Salmonella infection, to determine the genotype and evaluate presence of resistant allele of the BPI gene in population of pigs, and to establish genetic data for pig breeders for the improvement of Philippine pig industry. In this study, 389 blood samples from different pig breeds were collected from pig breeder farms in the Philippines. Genomic DNA was extracted from these samples and genotyping was done by PCR-RFLP analysis using AvaII restriction enzyme. Out of 389 pigs, the genotypic frequency showed that 98.4, 1.3, and 0.3% pigs are resistant (GG), heterozygous type (AG), and susceptible (AA), respectively. The application of BPI gene as marker for disease resistance will provide information to the pig industry to implement strategies for the identification of Salmonella infection-resistant pigs.

KEYWORDS:

• BPI gene
• disease resistance
• PCR-RFLP
• PIG
• Salmonella

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Arnel N. Del Barrio, Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) Executive Director, for the support, the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development for the research grant under the Swine Genomics Project 2 and the staff of the Biosafety and Environment Section of PCC for their technical assistance.

All procedures and protocols used in this study were approved by the PCC institutional animal care and use committee under a special order that conforms to the guide for care and use of laboratory animals published by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication no. 85–23, revised 1996).

Furthermore, this work does not contain any studies with human samples.