Site Pigtrop

Abstract

We described the reproductive performance of native pigs raised by smallholders in a traditional way and used for ritual sacrifice in a Hmong village in the hills of northern Thailand. Field study was conducted between May 2005 and January 2007 (13 months in total). The pig reproductive performance in ten households during two years (January 2005 to December 2006) was as follows: The 15 farrowing samples in the households had an average litter size at birth of 7.1 and litter size at weaning of 6.0 (pre-weaning mortality 16%). A total of 107 piglets were born in the ten households during the two years, an average of 5.4 piglets per household per year. We were only able to collect data on farrowing intervals in three cases, two of eight months and one of 19 months. There was no concentrated farrowing period: of the 15 farrowings, there were seven months with one farrowing each (February, April, May, June, July, September, November), four with two farrowings (January, March, August, December), and one with none (October). This indicates that households have a variety of attitudes to pig reproduction, and that there is no seasonality in farrowing.

Keywords Reproductive performance - Litter size - Farrowing interval - Native pig smallholders - Hmong in northern Thailand