Indigenous pig genetic resources of India: Distribution, types and their characteristics

Abstract

In India, the indigenous pigs are traditionally reared either by the poor, weaker and the tribal sections of the society. Although, the growth rates and feed conversion ratio of indigenous pigs are less than those of exotic or crossbred pigs, they have unique features like heat tolerance, disease resistance, early sexual maturity and ability to produce meat with less fat. In India, the total population of indigenous pigs is 78.35 lakhs constituting 76.14% of the total pig population of the country. Uttar Pradesh has the largest population of indigenous pigs (11.52 lakhs), followed by Assam (10.22 lakhs), Jharkhand (9.21 lakhs) and Bihar (6.26 lakhs). In studies conducted at various centres of All India Coordinated Research Project on pigs, the weight of these pigs at birth, weaning (8 weeks) and 32 weeks of age ranged from 0.44±0.01 to 0.83±0.01, 7.00±0.36 to 8.12±0.18 and 31.32±0.45 to 42.91±1.04 kg, respectively. Although, the indigenous pigs were largely clubbed as local or non-descript but in the last few years many population have been characterized. Some of them have been registered by ICAR-NBAGR as new breeds of indigenous pigs, like Ghoongroo, Niang Megha, Agondagoan, Tenyi Vo, Nicobari, Doom, Zovawk and Gurrah pigs. This review discusses the population trend, attributes and available breeds of indigenous pigs of India.