DIVERSITY OF LOCAL PIG BREEDS AND PRODUCTION SYSTEMS FOR HIGH QUALITY TRADITIONAL PRODUCTS AND SUSTAINABLE PORK CHAINS

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Admixture and breed traceability in European indigenous pig breeds and wild boar using genome-wide SNP data

Publication . Dadousis, Christos; Muñoz, Maria; Óvilo, Cristina; Fabbri, Maria Chiara; Araújo, José Pedro; Bovo, Samuele; Potokar, Marjeta Čandek; Charneca, Rui; Crovetti, Alessandro; Gallo, Maurizio; García-Casco, Juan María; Karolyi, Danijel; Kušec, Goran; Martins, José Manuel; Mercat, Marie-José; Pugliese, Carolina; Quintanilla, Raquel; Radović, Čedomir; Razmaite, Violeta; Ribani, Anisa; Riquet, Juliet; Savić, Radomir; Schiavo, Giuseppina; Škrlep, Martin; Tinarelli, Silvia; Usai, Graziano; Zimmer, Christoph; Fontanesi, Luca; Bozzi, Riccardo

Preserving diversity of indigenous pig (Sus scrofa) breeds is a key factor to (i) sustain the pork chain (both at local and global scales) including the production of high-quality branded products, (ii) enrich the animal biobanking and (iii) progress conservation policies. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips offer the opportunity for whole-genome comparisons among individuals and breeds. Animals from twenty European local pigs breeds, reared in nine countries (Croatia: Black Slavonian, Turopolje; France: Basque, Gascon; Germany: Schwabisch-Hällisches Schwein; Italy: Apulo Calabrese, Casertana, Cinta Senese, Mora Romagnola, Nero Siciliano, Sarda; Lithuania: Indigenous Wattle, White Old Type; Portugal: Alentejana, Bísara; Serbia: Moravka, Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa; Slovenia: Krškopolje pig; Spain: Iberian, Majorcan Black), and three commercial breeds (Duroc, Landrace and Large White) were sampled and genotyped with the GeneSeek Genomic Profiler (GGP) 70 K HD porcine genotyping chip. A dataset of 51 Wild Boars from nine countries was also added, summing up to 1186 pigs (~ 49 pigs/ breed). The aim was to: (i) investigate individual admixture ancestries and (ii) assess breed traceability via discriminant analysis on principal components (DAPC). Albeit the mosaic of shared ancestries found for Nero Siciliano, Sarda and Moravka, admixture analysis indicated independent evolvement for the rest of the breeds. High prediction accuracy of DAPC mark SNP data as a reliable solution for the traceability of breed-specific pig products.

2022Journal article

Open access

Growth performance of Bísaro pigs in hoop barn and confinement housing systems

Publication . Araújo, José Pedro; Cerqueira, Joaquim; Pires, Pedro; Amorim, Irina; Durão, J.; Cadavez, Vasco; Silva, J. Santos e; Domínguez, Rubén; Bermúdez Piedra, Roberto; Lorenzo Rodriguez, Jose Manuel

The goal of this study was to compare the growth performance of growing/finishing pigs housed in a hoop barn system and in traditional confinement. A total of twenty Bísaro breed pigs, with 98.6±5.71 days of age, and 25.4±4.87 kg of BW were used (beginning of experiment). The pigs were equally distributed in two groups: Gr1 - hoop barn (3.0 m2/pig) with outdoor access (200 m2/pig); and Gr2 - traditional confinement with straw bedding (1.8 m2/pig). Both groups were fed with the same diet. During the next 98 days’ period (growing phase) and until pigs reached approximately 80 kg LW, the animals were fed with a concentrate diet. In the finishing phase consisting of a final 70 days period until slaughter, the animals reached between 110-120 kg LW and were fed with concentrate and cornflour. The feed intake per group was registered daily and growth performances were collected every two weeks. During the growing phase no differences (P > 0.05) were observed in the average daily gain (ADG) between Gr1 (0.546±0.10 kg/day) and Gr2 (0.563±0.05 kg/day). However, a higher variability was observed in hoop barn group (CV of 18.1% vs. 8.8% in confinement). Similar results were observed during the finishing phase with ADG of 0.535±0.09 kg for Gr1 and 0.505±0.07 kg for Gr2 (P > 0.05). In both growing and finishing phases, the feed conversion rates (FCR) were 3.11 on the Gr1 versus 3.12 kg/kg on the Gr2, and 3.44 in Gr1 versus 3.53 in Gr2, respectively. Despite the different housing systems, ADG and FCR per period were identical in both systems. To the consumer’s point of view, the positive aspects of the hoop barn system, such as the use of uncultivated land, product image and pig welfare, are sustainably attractive and therefore could be further reflected in the market.

2018Journal article

Open access

Funding agency

European Commission

Funding programme

H2020

Funding Award Number

634476