Lantang Pig: local improved breeds need to be protected urgently

Blue pond pig: local improved breed needs to be preserved urgently

China's only inbreeding resistant local improved variety, selling price as high as 8 yuan/catty

Lantang pig originated from Lantang Town, Zijin County, Heyuan City. It has excellent characteristics such as early maturity and easy fertility, gentle temperament, tolerance to coarse feeding, strong adaptability, strong reproductive power, thin skin, delicious meat taste and high inbreeding tolerance. It is a local fine breed in China and is listed in the national livestock and poultry breed resource protection scope. However, due to changes in market demand in recent years, the number of blue pond pigs has dropped significantly and is in danger of extinction.

It is understood that the formation of Lantang pig is due to inconvenient transportation in mountainous areas, long-term inbreeding, the formation of "father Lao Zi, mother died female generation, generation after generation" single transmission method, bad genes are gradually eliminated, genetic material homozygosity is high, quality is neat, there will be no genetic disease and inbreeding decline, is the only inbreeding resistant local fine breed in China.

The litter size of Lantang multiparous sows is 11-12, and the utilization period is more than 5 years. The cross effect is better than other breeds. The results showed that the F1 of Landrace and Lantang sow had a daily gain of 638 g and a carcass lean percentage of 39.48%, while the F1 of Duroc boar and Landrace and Lantang sow had a daily gain of 622 g and a carcass lean percentage of 50.35%.

From 1970s to the early 1990s, Lantang pigs were very popular. In peak period, there were 38,000 sows in Zijin County alone, with an annual output of more than 600,000 piglets and more than 300,000 piglets exported. It is one of the main pig seedling producing areas in our province.

However, after entering the 1990s, with the improvement of people's living standard, the meat structure changed. In order to adapt to the market demand, the farmers turned their eyes to lean pigs. The blue pond pigs suffered unprecedented impact, export was blocked, domestic sales shrank, lost their former glory and gradually faded out of the market. According to the investigation in 2003, the stock of Lantang sow in Lantang Town was only 1800 and 4 boars; the stock of Heyuan City was 15000 and 30 boars; most of them were raised by farmers. If feasible measures are not taken to protect the breed, the blue pond pig will face extinction.

Fortunately, in recent years, with the improvement of life, the problem of food and clothing has been basically solved, gradually moving towards a well-off society, people pursue higher quality of life, put forward the requirements of high-quality, safe and hygienic meat, some consumer groups, especially those who live in large and medium-sized cities for a long time, are optimistic about blue pond pigs again. Under this background, Heyuan City Sanyou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Group Co., Ltd. proposed to develop and utilize blue pond pig on the basis of seed conservation, and develop production in the way of "company + farmer" to meet the consumption demand of different levels.

According to You Zhibing, director of Sanyou's office, the company is the only local breeding enterprise, with more than 300 breeding sows in stock at present. You director introduced, the company to protect seed-based, free for farmers to provide pig seedlings, raised after recycling. According to introduction, the current price of blue pond pork pig is about 8 yuan/catty, the price of pork on the market is also 12-13 yuan/catty, much higher than lean pig, so it can also attract many farmers.

In 2003, Heyuan City Agricultural Bureau carried out the method of combining socialized seed conservation with base seed conservation to develop and utilize blue pond pigs on the basis of seed conservation. In terms of socialized breeding area, according to the distribution of Lantang pigs, Lantang Pig Nature Reserve was established in Lantang and Fengan Town of Zijin County to raise 500 Lantang sows and 15 boars.

In the aspect of base conservation and utilization, a new production line with 50 purebred and 400 long-hybrid sows was built in Lantang breeding farm. On the one hand, purebred breeding was strengthened, purification and rejuvenation were strengthened, and the original excellent performance of Lantang pigs was stably inherited through correct and reasonable selection; On the other hand, by using the significant hybridization advantage of Lantang pig, Landrace and Duroc boar are introduced to carry out ternary hybridization to produce delicious Du Changlan commercial pig seedlings for farmers to raise. Commercial pigs are recycled from the product improvement station@#@136 @#@. After the project is put into normal operation, the farm can produce 350 blue pond breeding sows and 7600 Du Changlan commercial piglets every year.

However, in order to maintain the unique quality and flavor of Lantang pigs, they should be fed with agricultural products throughout the whole process. If they are fed with feed, their growth performance and meat quality will be changed. On the other hand, blue pond pig breeding period is longer, at least 8 months to sell, the cost is relatively high. Therefore, the conservation of blue pond pigs is still difficult.