Litter Size and Weight of Piglets of the Turopolje Pig Breed in the Suckling Period
Marija ĐIKIĆ, Ivan JURIĆ, Zvonimir ROBIĆ, Zdravko HENC, Goran GUGIĆ
Pages: 97-102
Summary
The Turopolje breed of pig, the only representative of Croatian indigenous breeds of pigs, is on the list of the World Watch of Livestock Breeds (Mason, 1988) along with many recognised and economically important breeds, kinds and hybrids of various countries. However, it has no very great economic importance, although according to Findrik (1948) in the past in the Croatia it constituted 20% of the total herd of pigs, and was maintained in outdoor conditions. In the fifties the Turopolje breed lost its market value because it was a type with a lot of fat, and the pig market had undergone changes with respect to consumption of fat meat. In addition, the development of the economy in the country meant that there was a halt to the outdoor production system.
Accordingly, today the Turopolje breed, as indigenous Croatian breed, is now on another world list, the World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity (Loftus and Scherf, 1993), among animals that are endangered and in danger of extinction, animals for which there is an FAO protection programme.
The aim of this work is to make some contribution to the preservation of the Turopolje breed, and to investigate the possibility of including the Turopolje breed genome into the creation of modern genotypes of pigs for production in an outdoor maintenance system.
The research was started in 1997 on the A population of the Turopolje breed. In the outdoor maintenance system (woods), sows from the same sire were mated with a single boar, and farrowed in the late spring.
The size of the litters, the weight, and daily weight gain of the piglets until weaning were analysed, nine litters with a total of 77 piglets being considered. The average numbers of piglets in litters were determined: total 8.56, live 6.67, dead 1.89, female 3.56, male 3.11. Weight (in kg) and daily weight gain (in g) until weaning were: total 4.42; 101.22; for females 4.42 and 103.93, and for males 3.92 and 98.13, which demonstrates the possibility that sows can be kept and piglets survive until weaning in the open maintenance system.
Accordingly, today the Turopolje breed, as indigenous Croatian breed, is now on another world list, the World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity (Loftus and Scherf, 1993), among animals that are endangered and in danger of extinction, animals for which there is an FAO protection programme.
The aim of this work is to make some contribution to the preservation of the Turopolje breed, and to investigate the possibility of including the Turopolje breed genome into the creation of modern genotypes of pigs for production in an outdoor maintenance system.
The research was started in 1997 on the A population of the Turopolje breed. In the outdoor maintenance system (woods), sows from the same sire were mated with a single boar, and farrowed in the late spring.
The size of the litters, the weight, and daily weight gain of the piglets until weaning were analysed, nine litters with a total of 77 piglets being considered. The average numbers of piglets in litters were determined: total 8.56, live 6.67, dead 1.89, female 3.56, male 3.11. Weight (in kg) and daily weight gain (in g) until weaning were: total 4.42; 101.22; for females 4.42 and 103.93, and for males 3.92 and 98.13, which demonstrates the possibility that sows can be kept and piglets survive until weaning in the open maintenance system.
Keywords
Turopolje breed; piglet daily weight gain; weight; age at weaning; sex
Full Text: PDF