Abstract. Title of the paper: Systematic crossbreeding as a tool to conserve endangered pig breeds
Live conservation of purebred populations of old endangered pig breeds requires high financial subsidies because they are very inferior to actual commercial hybrids in overall economy. But subsidies may be considerably reduced if the endangered breeds can be integrated into regional crossbreeding schemes adapted to ecological production niches or designed for specific quality products. The aim of this study at the experimental station Relliehausen of Göttingen University was to compare the performance of two crossbred sows with the endangered breeds Saddleback (DS) and Bentheimer (BB) as dams sire (and LW/LR as dams dam) with commercial LW/LR-crossbred sows in their litter performance as well as meat production and quality traits of their progeny from the same PI(NN)- and (PI*HA)-terminal sires. 478 litters with 1,384 fattened and 1,037 carcass graded progeny of which about 600 underwent detailed carcass value and meat quality evaluations at a loin cross section and 48 with an additional sensoric test. Results show that in litter performance DS crossbred sows were comparable to LW/LR commercial sows but BB crossbred sows weaned 0.66 pigs less per litter. In FOM grading no significant differences were found between the three sow groups as well as between the two different terminal sires. This also applied for most meat quality traits but in intramuscular fat content unexpectedly the control pigs were the best and significantly superior to the BB-progeny. The typical highly significant quality differences due to the "Hampshire effect" were found between progeny of the (PI*HA)-boar as compared to PI-progeny. In a calculated overall economic value DS-progeny were 4–5 DM and BB-progeny about 8 DM per pig inferior to the commercial controls. These differences are only 1/5 to 1/10 of the purebred inferiority of the endangered breeds. These results should be confirmed by a field trial under more extensive conditions (e.g. outdoor sow- and ecological fattener management).