Morphological characterization of indigenous and crossbred pigs in rural and peri-urban areas of southwestern Nigeria

Adeniyi Charles Adeola, Saidu O. Oseni, Ofelia Galma Omitogun

Department of Animal Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria;.

DOI: 10.4236/ojas.2013.33034                

Abstract

We sought to determine morphological descriptors of Nigerian indigenous pigs (NIP) and crossbred pigs (CBP) based on relationships among live weight (LW) and a suite of 18 morphometric measurements plus the number of teats. We sampled four locations in southwestern Nigeria and obtained data for a total of 120 NIP and CBP. More female pigs (61.7%) than males (38.3%) were sampled, and they had a mean live weight of 19.9 ± 6.10 kg (range 9 - 32 kg) and 20.1 ± 6.08 kg (range 8 - 37 kg), respectively. The NIP had a longer snout, wider head and longer erect ears than CBP (P < 0.0001). Morphological variables that were highly correlated with LW included neck circumference (NC), breast height (BH), rump height (RH), body length (BL), interorbital width (IW), paunch girth (PG), hearth girth (HG), tail length (TL) and length of snout (LS) with Spearman correlation coefficients (R²) of 0.97, 0.92, 0.96, 0.97, 0.91, 0.97, 0.97, 0.90, and 0.93, respectively (all P < 0.0001). Teat number for NIP ranged from 5 to 14 while the CBP had a range of 10 to 16 teats. For male NIP, HG and TL best-fit in the model for body weight prediction (LW = ﹣25.71 + 0.43 HG + 2.21 TL; R² = 0.93; P < 0.0001), while HG and IW had the best-fit for the female NIP (LW = ﹣28.27 + 0.50 HG + 2.22 IW; R² = 0.96; P < 0.0001). Models for male and female CBP were LW = ﹣8.89 + 0.32 RH + 0.34 BL (R² = 0.84; P < 0.0001) and LW = ﹣13.01 + 0.44 RH+0.27 BL (R² = 0.94; P < 0.0001), respectively. Thus, for these populations of pigs, LS and TN differentiated NIP from CBP, because the NIP consistently recorded longer LS and lesser TN.

Keywords

Nigerian Indigenous Pigs; Live Weight; Morphological Descriptors; Relationship

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Brown, C. (2004) The changing market: Perspective from multiple retailers. In: Thompson, J.E., Gill, B.P. and Varley, M.A., Eds., The Appliance of Pig Science, British Society of Animal Science, 19-22.
[2]	Archibald, A.L. and Haley C.S. (1992) Porcine genome analysis. Strategies for Physical Mapping, 4, 99-129.
[3]	Omitogun, O.G. (2004) Analysis of swine genome organization. Evaluation of G-T-G bands in porcine chromosomes for physical mapping. In: Ariyo, O.J., Ikeobi, C.O.N., Omoniyi, T. and Kehinde, O.B., Eds., Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of Genetics Society of Nigeria, 54-57.
[4]	Holness, D.H. (1991) The tropical agriculturist (Pigs). CTA, Wageningen, 1-29.
[5]	Osaro, O.M. (1995) Enhancing production performance of small holder pig farmers. In: Pig Production Workshop Training Manual, NAERLS, A.B.U., Zaria, 100-130.
[6]	Ironkwe, M.O. and Amefule, K.U. (2008) Appraisal of indigenous pig production and management practices in Rivers State, Nigeria. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research (JASR), 8, 11-16.
[7]	Oseni, S.O., Sonaiya, E.B., Omitogun, O.G., Ajayi, B.A., and Muritala, I. (2006) West African Dwarf Goat Production under village condition: 1. Characterisation and establishment of Breed Standards. Proceedings of Conference on International Agricultural Research for Development, University of Bonn, Tropentag, 1-5.
[8]	Sulabo, R.C., Quackenbush, J., Goodband, R.D., Tokach, M.D., Dritz, S.S., DeRouchey, J.M. and Nelssen, J.L. (2006) Validation of flank-to-flank measurement for predicting boar weight. http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library
[9]	Machebe, N. S. and Ezekwe, A.G. (2008) Predicting body weight of growing-finishing gilts reared in the tropics using linear body measurements. Procedure 13th Annual Conference of Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN).
[10]	Adedeji, T.A. (2012) Qualitative and quantitative characterization of body morphometric of indigenous pigs in the humid environment of Nigeria. Continental Journal of Animal and Veterinary Research, 4, 11-16.