Preweaning litter growth and weaning characteristics among inbred and cross bred native by exotic piglet genotypes

摘要

Inbred strains generated from native and exotic pigs were compared for a range of pre-weaning and weaning letter performance traits. Animals were intensity reared and at 9 months of age, the inbred genotypes from each strain or breed were reciprocally mated to each other to generate F1 cross bred genotypes. Results of the study showed that the Preweaning and weaning litter performances were better in the cross bred groups than in the inbred parents and this improvement could be ascribed to the dominant genes from the exotic parents. Significant (P<0.05) difference was obtained in the Perweaning and weaning birth weight, mortality rate, litter weight, litter growth rate, and litter weaning characteristics like litter size at weaning, survival rate to weaning, litter weight gain at weaning, litter mates weight difference at weaning and weaning sex ratio respectively. The superior performance of crossbred genotypes over the inbred were attributed to maternal, age and body weight of dam rather than genetic effects. The generally low reproductive performance of the present stock of pigs suggests the need to upgrade them by cross-mating selected native pigs with new imports.