Patent ID: 7435543

Claim:
A method of screening a population of Duroc pigs for genetic predisposition of backfat thickness comprising: a) obtaining a sample of genomic DNA from the Duroc Pigs; b) detecting the presence of polymorphism in the porcine HSP70.2 5′-flanking region comprising SEQ ID NO 1 at nucleotides 44, 232, 250, 345 and 393; c) identifying the genotype of CCATT/CCATT, CCATT/CC-TC, CCATT/CCATC, CC-TC/CC-TC, or CCATT/AAACC whereby said genotypes indicates the Duroc pigs having a genetic predisposition to backfat thickness less than Duroc pigs with genotypes CC-TC/AAACC, CCATC/CCATC or CCATC/AAACC.