Chongming Shawutou Pig

Chongming Shawutou Pig

The Chongming Shawutou Pig is a geographical indication agricultural product.

　　The Shawutou pig is one of the famous local pig breeds in the Taihu Lake Basin, renowned for its high litter size and strong reproductive capacity. It belongs to the Jianghai-type pig breed and originates from Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It is one of China’s well-known local pig breeds known for its high fertility and large litter size. The Shawutou pig has a long history of being raised in Chongming. As early as the first year of the Wude era of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD), residents of Chongming Island began raising them. Through long-term natural and social selection, by the Ming and Qing dynasties, a unique Shawutou pig breed had formed on the island, characterized by a compact body, sturdy physique, and agile movement. It has a medium-sized head, moderate-length face, shallow forehead wrinkles, and a jade-colored nose. Its ears are large, drooping, and slightly shorter than the snout, with slightly firm ear roots. The back is straight or slightly concave, the belly is large and droopy but does not touch the ground, and there are 08 or more pairs. The coat is black with wrinkles on the legs and white hair on all four feet (commonly known as "four white feet"). It also features excellent traits such as early sexual maturity (3–4 months of age), high fertility (13 piglets in first parity, over 15 in subsequent parities), tolerance to rough feed, strong lactation ability, and long service life. Moreover, it is especially famous for its delicious, tender, and juicy meat. It has a strong adaptability to the low temperature and humid geographic and climatic conditions of the island, making it one of Shanghai’s uniquely characteristic local pig breeds.

　　The dominant sow breed in the county, it is of medium size, with a sturdy build, featuring early sexual maturity, high fertility, good mothering ability, tolerance to coarse feed, and notable hybrid vigor.

　　Chongming Shawutou Pig

　　Location: Shanghai

　　Applicant: Shanghai Chongming County Breeding Livestock Farm

　　Location: 2013

　　Geographic Scope

　　Chongming Island is China’s third-largest island and the world’s largest estuarine alluvial island, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, surrounded by rivers on three sides and the sea on one. It borders the vast East China Sea to the east, faces Baoshan District and Pudong New Area of Shanghai and Taicang City of Jiangsu Province across the water to the south, connects to the rolling Yangtze River to the west, and is close to Haimen City and Qidong City of Jiangsu Province to the north. In 1222 AD (the 15th year of the Jiading era of the Southern Song Dynasty), the Tianci Salt Field was established on Chongming Island, under the jurisdiction of Tongzhou; on December 1, 1958, it was placed under the jurisdiction of Shanghai, establishing Chongming County. The protected geographic area for the Chongming Shawutou Pig geographical indication agricultural product includes Chongming County, spanning from 121°09′30″ to 121°54′00″ east longitude and 31°27′00″ to 31°51′15″ north latitude, comprising Chongming Island, Changxing Island, and Hengsha Island. The total land area of the three islands is 1,411 square kilometers, including 1,267 square kilometers for Chongming Island, 88 square kilometers for Changxing Island, and 56 square kilometers for Hengsha Island. The production scale of the Chongming Shawutou Pig is 48,000 heads, with an annual total output of 8,000 tons. In 2002, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Government clearly designated Chongming County as an important strategic space for Shanghai’s sustainable development in the 21st century. In 2005, with the establishment of the overall goal of building Chongming into a world-class modern eco-island district, Chongming embraced a once-in-a-millennium historic development opportunity.