Effect of different crossbreeding schemes of the East Balkan sows with boars of the Danube White and Large White breeds on the reproductive performance

Yordan Marchev

Abstract: An evaluation of the reproduction parameters using two variants of crossing was made: • Industrial crossbreeding of sows of the East Balkan sow (EBS) and boars of the Danube White (DW) and Large White (LW) breeds; • Reversible crossing. The ♀EBS x ♂LW and ♀EBS x ♂DW females were covered with boars from the East Balkan breed. The results showed that the industrial crossbreeding has influenced in a positive aspect for all monitored traits. A positive effect has been established in the crossbreeding of the East Balkan breed with Large White breed in comparison to pure EBS breed – 0.8 pigs born alive more, 169.1 g live weight at birth more, 1.1 piglets at weaning. Especially in live weight at weaning there was the difference of 5.352 kg, which is significant (Р ≤ 0.01). In reversible crossing, a tendency for a higher number (9.8) of pigs born alive in the sows of EBS x LW origin exceeding with 0.5 pigs from the EBS x DW origin (9.3) was established. A tendency for higher growth rate through the suckling period of the pigs of ♀EBS x LW x ♂EBS origin has been established expressed by the higher live weight at weaning where the difference with those ♀EBS x DW x ♂EBS was 0.848 kg.

Keywords: boars; crossbreeding; Danube White; East Balkan sows; effect; Large White; reproductive traits

Date published: 2018-10-04