Pig Breeds

In many countries in Africa, pigs have not been characterized into specific breeds, and are variously referred to as 'indigenous', 'local', or 'unimproved' pigs, according to Farmpally.

The situation is further confused in some areas by interbreeding with imported exotic strains.




North-Africa

In north countries in Africa, pigs are not common, and where they do occur as in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Sudan, they are of the extremely primitive type with long thin heads, small prick ears, and slender poorly-muscled bodies.



West Africa

Similar primitive types have been reported in parts of West Africa, such as Zaire and Angola.

However, in some parts of Africa, more specific use is made of pigs for meat production and the Bakosi in the Cameroons and the Ashanti Dwarf in Ghana are typical and have been described as indigenous breeds.

They are small with a mature female size of 40-60kg and are mainly black in color with prick ears.



East, Central and Southern Africa

Although the unimproved pigs of East, Central, and southern Africa are almost certainly descended from stock introduced by early European travelers, and therefore not truly indigenous, they are relatively widespread.

In Tanzania, some 60% of the pig population is classified as indigenous, and some quite different types have evolved in various rural areas.

The indigenous pig which has been described in South Africa has been classified by Mason and Maule (1960) into two distinct types.

Firstly, there is the Windsnyer type, which is a long-nosed, razor-backed pig which also occurs throughout Zimbabwe and in parts of Mozambique and Zambia, and secondly, the Kolbroek, which is a short fat animal with a short snout and dished face, which appears to be restricted to South Africa.

Clearly the productivity of these unimproved breeds I'm Africa is influenced by their environment.

In trials in Zimbabwe, although litter sizes tended to be smaller, total live-weight of the litter as a proportion of the weight of the sow at farrowing was of the same order as exotic sows (11 percent).

The efficiency of conversion of food to bodyweight in indigenous sows is also equivalent to that of exotic types.

Indigenous sows showed excellent mothering ability, which resulted in very low piglet mortality without sophisticated housing.


However, during the growth phase, growth rates and food conversion efficiencies of indigenous pigs are below their exotic counterparts.


Source: FarmPally