Analysis of pedigree and inbreeding variation of Lithuanian indigenous wattle pigs

Abstract

The objective of the study was to analyse the pedigree of pigs and to determine the level of their inbreeding, effective population size and interval between generations in the nucleus herd of restored and conserved Lithuanian indigenous wattle pig breed. The data of pedigree records on 329 Lithuanian indigenous wattle pigs were used for the analysis. The analysis was performed using the statistical programme PopReport. In the twelfth year of the restored population breeding, the completeness of pedigree in two first generations was 100%, in the third generation it was 99.1%, in the fourth generation 96.6%, in the fifth generation 93.6% and in the sixth generation it was 86.9%. The average interval between the generations was 3 years. From 2003 to 2013, the inbreeding coefficient of the introduced new generation increased by 10%. Due to the inbreeding increase in the last years the effective population size N_e of the nucleus decreased up to 12 and shows the general status of the whole population. The status of the breed remains critical-maintained.