Pudong White Pig

Pudong White Pig

　　The Pudong White Pig is one of the rare indigenous white pig breeds in China, known for its high fertility, excellent maternal traits, and tender, delicious meat.

　　The breed has an all-white coat, a diamond-shaped wrinkle on its face, drooping ears, and relatively coarse and stiff bristles. Its back is straight, the rump is sloped, and it has more than eight pairs of effective teats.

　　 At six months of age, male reserve pigs weigh 74.53 kg and females 68.92 kg; adult boars weigh 215 kg and sows 158.8 kg. Under good feeding and management conditions, young boars begin to show mounting behavior around two months of age, while young sows typically enter estrus around three months of age. The estrus cycle lasts 20–23 days, with estrus lasting 2–4 days. Estrus symptoms are obvious, including restlessness, reduced appetite, vocalization, mounting other pigs, frequent urination, reddened and swollen external genitalia, and a stationary raised tail when the sow’s back is touched. It is most suitable to breed adult sows and first-time breeding sows within 24 hours and 36–48 hours after estrus, respectively. The gestation period is 112–114 days. Sows usually come into estrus again 7–10 days after weaning their piglets, though some may also come into heat during lactation around 40 days postpartum. First-time sows average 12.5 piglets per litter, while experienced sows average 15.24.

　　 According to test data from the Nanhui County Testing Station in Shanghai in 1984, when the Pudong White Pig weighed 89.4 kg before slaughter, its lean meat percentage was 42.6%.

　　 The three-way crossbred offspring with the Pudong White Pig as the dam have a higher daily weight gain compared to purebred pigs. The four-way crossbred Daxi × (Dayue × Chang × Pu) has a daily weight gain of 761.84 grams during the fattening period.

　　 The Pudong White Pig has a long history of being raised in counties such as Nanhui, where it has demonstrated good reproductive and fattening performance. Local farmers have adopted it as their main breed and used it in two-way, three-way, and four-way crossbreeding with other pig breeds, yielding offspring that perform well in reproduction and fattening. For example, “Dachangpu” sows produce litters averaging 13.12 piglets, and the four-way crossbred “Dudachangpu” pigs—bred from crossing with Duroc boars—have a daily weight gain of 761.84 g, a feed-to-meat ratio of 2.73:1, and a lean meat percentage of 65.19%. Due to their Pudong White Pig lineage, these four-way crossbred pigs have finer muscle fibers, bright red meat color, and delicious taste, making them highly favored by consumers. Using such methods to improve the meat quality of lean-type pigs and increase both the quantity and quality of lean-type pigs in China holds profound significance.