Towards the characterisation of animal robustness by dynamic energy allocation indicators in fattening pigs

International audience; The objectives of this study were to investigate the possibility of characterising animalrobustness by using indicators based on the dynamics of energy allocation of the animal andto determine their genetic parameters. A total of 2 140 pigs, from the Piétrain NN Françaisline, were raised at the AXIOM boar testing station. This farm was equipped with automaticfeeding system, recording individual weight and feed intake at each visit. We used a dynamiclinear regression model to characterize the evolution of the allocation factor ( αt) betweencumulative net energy available, estimated from feed intake, and cumulative weight gainduring fattening period. The variance of α t, that could be interpreted as an indicator of theresponse of the animal to perturbations/stress, showed moderate heritability (0.27 ±0.08). Ourperspective is to further decompose the allocation factor into components to bettercharacterise the robustness phenotyp