Pig hybridization in Lithuania: the present and the future

By the 1st of January 2005, the number of pigs in Lithuania was 1073300 or by 1.5 % higher compared with the beginning of 2004. Farmers and household farms accounted for 56 %, and agricultural partnerships and enterprises for 44 % of all pigs (http://www.std.lt). Although many inhabitants are keeping several pigs each for their own needs, however their biggest groups are concentrated in the large - scale pig production units and breeding centres. Pig meat accounts over 50 % of the total meat production. During the last four years consumption of this meat increased from 25.4 to 39 kg for 1 inhabitant per year (average for EU countries is 43.8 kg / 1 inhabitant). Thus, pig breeding in Lithuania is a traditional branch of animal husbandry. The number of pigs in the farms of all types is expected to be further increasing. In Lithuania, as in other countries of developed pig breeding (Webb, 1994; Nicholas, 1996; http://www.norsvin.com), pig breeding is based on the pyramidal principle. On the top, there are elite breeding centres (n=11), in which pigs of various breeds are improved only by pure breeding. Lower, there are breeding centres (n=32), where purebred pigs are multiplied and first generation (F1) of crossbred gilts and boars is produced. At the bottom, there are large-scale pig production units and other commercial farms producing two- three - or more way crossbreds for meat. The breeding progeny is raised and distributed by 43 pig breeding centres. By the end of the year 2005, about 8 % of all pigs were bred in them. About 26 % of all purebred pigs in the breeding centres consisted of Lithuanian White, 10 % - Large White, 19 % -Yorkshire, 42 % - Landrace, and 3 % - Lithuanian native pigs (gene pool), Duroc and Pietrain (Pig breeding records, 2005). Besides that, there are six breeding enterprises where sires of the mentioned breeds are housed for semen collection. Thus, the genetic potential of pigs, bred in Lithuania, and the whole breeding system provides favourable conditions to pursue commercial crossbreeding (hybridization). In Lithuania there are 20 large-scale pig production units, in which from 12000 till 54000 pigs are being kept. The goal of this work was to determine the most effective combinations of pig hybridization.