Yushan black

Zoological conditions: Yushan black pig, also named the Black pig of Jiangxi northeast are mainly found in Yushan, Guangfeng, Qianshan, Hengfeng and Geyang counties, and the Shangrao region, Jiangxi Province (See the Figure below, the red color area). The area is generally hilly with mild climatic conditions, adequate rainfall and long frost-free period. There are three cropping seasons each year. Rice is the first crop product followed by corn, wheat, barley, sweet potato and then beans. Farm by-products and green feed are abundant, and form the main source of feed material on which Yushan Black pig were founded. Yushan Black pig generally stores up fat early and the pork is tender and juicy thus is regarded as "tribute pig". According to classification of Pig Breeds in China, Yushan Pig was classified as Central China type (Lai et al, 2001; Zhang et al, 1986).

Appearance Characteristics: Body size is small with a loose physique. It has drooping medium size ears, and a short and wide mouth. The waist is wide but tiny and concave; the size of belly is moderate. Rump is plump and slightly inclined, the limbs are short and solid. The pig has a loose skin with black hair on the backside. It has about 6-7 pairs of nipples.

Production performance: The sexual maturity of Yushan black pig is early. Sows generally begin oestrus at 3-4 months of age, while sexual desire in boars is observed at 3 months of age. Sows can be used for mating at 7 months of age with body weight of 50 Kg. The boars are suitable for mating at 8 months of age with body weight of 55 Kg. Litter numbers during different parities are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: The litter number of Yushan black pig

According to results from test data at the Yushan black pig breeding farm in 1997, under the nutrition level of 11.72 DE MJ/Kg and CP 13%, the average daily gain of hogs with initial weight of 15kg was 482.89g during the test period. The feed conversion ratio was 3.81:1. When slaughtered at 90kg, dressing lean meat and fat percentage was 76.1%, 39.47% and 43.70%, respectively.

Utilization

Crossbreeding: The crossbreeding experiment was carried out by The Agricultural Scientific Research Institute of Yushan county at the beginning of 1980's. Yorkshire and Kemiluofu boars were used as sires on Yushan sows, There was 25.44% and 12.89% respective heterosis for average daily gain (ADG) in the first offspring genotypes. Carcass percentage, body length and rear leg weight apparently increased, skin thickness and back fat decreased while caul fat also decreased.

During 1997-1998, two crossbreeding schemes were carried out in Yushan Black pig breeding farm with Landrace and Yorkshire as sire parent used on Yushan females. The LandraceA1C1Yushan Black pig crossbred offspring weighing 16kg when raised to 95kg had an ADG of 625.44 g, and feed conversion ratio of 3.36: 1. The ADG and feed conversion ratio of YorkshireA1C1Yushan black pig crossbreed was 635g and 3.31: 1, respectively.

Evaluation of the genetic diversity: Ren et al(2002) analyzed the genetic diversity of the Yushan Black breed and the relationship with other breeds through PCR amplification with 12 pairs of the AFLP primers, two hundred and eight polymorphic bands were produced by these primers, but there was no peculiar band in this breed. The cluster result showed the Yushan breed clustered with the Qianshan Black breed firstly, and the genetic identity coefficient was 0.739.

Zhang et al (2003) studied the genetic variation of Yushan Black breed with a set of 27 microsatellite markers recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and International Society of Animal Genetics (FAO-ISGA), average heterozygosity of all markers was 0.80, and mean of the observed and effective alleles was 12.12 and 6.11. When clustered with other 55 Chinese indigenous pig breeds, the Yushan Black clustered with the Huainan breed firstly, then formed a branch with Qinping and Jianli. Yang et al(2003) presented the genetic diversity with the near-complete mtDNA genome of 17 breeds of indigenous Chinese pigs, there were 267 polymorphic loci in the tested regions. Yushan Black had the closest relationship with Tongcheng breed, the value was 0.01 ± 0.01%

Reference

1. Lai Y.B. and F.Y. Huang, Breeds of domestic animal and poultry in Jiangxi Province. 2001, pp57-67.

2. Ren J., L.S. Huang and H.S. Ai, Studies of population genetic relationships among 24 Chinese exotic pig breeds using AFLP analysis, Acta Genetica Sinica, 2002, 29(9), 774-781.

3. Yang J., J. Wang and J. Kijas, Genetic diversity present within the near-complete mtDNA genome of 17 breeds of indigenous Chinese pigs, 2003, 94(5) 381-385.

4. Zhang G.X., Z.G. Wang and F.Z. Sun., Genetic diversity of microsatellite loci fifty-six Chinese native pig breeds, Acta Genetica Sinica, 2003, 30(3) 225-233.

5. Zhang Z.G., B.T. Li, X. H. Chen, Pig Breeds in China. Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers. 1986 pp111-113.