Detection of quantitative trait loci for porcine susceptibility to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli F41 in a White Duroc x Chinese Erhualian resource population

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a major cause of diarrhoea in neonatal and postweaning pigs. F41 is one of ETEC fimbriae that adhere to the small intestinal epithelium and lead to development of diarrhoea. The genetic architecture of susceptibility to ETEC F41 remains elusive in pigs. In this study, we determined the in vitro adhesion phenotypes of ETEC F41 in a total of 835 F(2) animals from a White Duroc x Erhualian intercross, and performed a genome scan using both F(2) and half-sib analyses with 183 microsatellite markers to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for porcine susceptibility to ETEC F41. The two analyses consistently revealed a 1 genome-wide significant QTL on pig chromosome 4. Moreover, we determined F41 adhesion phenotypes in 14 purebred Erhualian and 14 White Duroc pigs. The results showed that both the founder breeds are segregating for the F41 adhesion phenotype, while less percentage of Erhualian pigs were adhesive to ETEC F41 compared to White Duroc pigs.