• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.12.1-12.5
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• 2015

Background: The Korean native pig (KNP) is generally thought to have come from northern China to the Korean peninsula approximately 2000 years ago. KNP pigs were at the brink of extinction in the 1980s, since then efforts have been made to restore the breed by bringing together the remaining stocks in South Korea. As a result, KNP was registered as a breed in 2006. To find additional breed-specific markers that are distinct among pig breeds, variations in O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) were investigated. OGT is located on chromosome X and catalyzes the post-translational addition of a single O-linked-${\beta}$-N-acetylglucosamine to target proteins. Findings: Length polymorphism in the intron 20 of OGT was identified. The intron 20 of OGT from Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire breeds was 281-bp longer than that from either KNP or Chinese Meishan pigs. The difference between the Western pig breeds (BB genotype) and KNP or Meishan pigs (AA genotype) was due to an inserted 276-bp element and the 5-bp ACTTG. Conclusions: The polymorphism in OGT identified in this study may be used as an additional marker for determining the breed of origin among Meishan and the Western pig breeds. The length polymorphism suggests that the locus near OGT is not fixed in KNP. This marker would be relevant in determining the breed of origin in crossbred pigs between KNP pigs with known genotypes and the Western pig breeds with BB genotypes, thus confirming the contribution of the X chromosome from each breed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.457-466
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• 2015

Taoyuan pig is a native Taiwan breed. According to the historical record, the breed was first introduced to Taiwan from Guangdong province, Southern China, around 1877. The breed played an important role in Taiwan's early swine industry. It was classified as an indigenous breed in 1986. After 1987, a conserved population of Taoyuan pig was collected and reared in isolation. In this study, mitochondrial DNA sequences and 18 microsatellite markers were used to investigate maternal lineage and genetic diversity within the Taoyuan pig population. Population differentiation among Taoyuan, Asian type, and European type pig breeds was also evaluated using differentiation indices. Only one D-loop haplotype of the Taoyuan pig was found. It clustered with Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China Type pig breeds. Based on the polymorphism of microsatellite markers, a positive fixation index value ($F_{IS}$) indicates that the conserved Taoyuan population suffers from inbreeding. In addition, high $F_{ST}$ values (>0.2105) were obtained, revealing high differentiation among these breeds. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling showed a clear geometric structure among 7 breeds. Together these results indicate that maternally Taoyuan pig originated in the Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China; however, since being introduced to Taiwan differentiation has occurred. In addition, Taoyuan pig has lost genetic diversity in both its mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1394-1398
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• 2014

Indigenous (native) breeds of livestock have higher disease resistance and adaptation to the environment due to high genetic diversity. Even though their extinction rate is accelerated due to the increase of commercial breeds, natural disaster, and civil war, there is a lack of well-established databases for the native breeds. Thus, we constructed the native pig and chicken breed database (NPCDB) which integrates available information on the breeds from around the world. It is a nonprofit public database aimed to provide information on the genetic resources of indigenous pig and chicken breeds for their conservation. The NPCDB (http://npcdb.snu.ac.kr/) provides the phenotypic information and population size of each breed as well as its specific habitat. In addition, it provides information on the distribution of genetic resources across the country. The database will contribute to understanding of the breed's characteristics such as disease resistance and adaptation to environmental changes as well as the conservation of indigenous genetic resources.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.403-409
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• 2010

Accurate methods for the identification of closely related species or breeds in raw and processed meats must be developed in order to protect both consumers and producers from mislabeling and fraud. This paper describes the development of DNA markers for the discrimination and improvement of Korean native pig (KNP) meat. The KIT gene is related to pig coat color and is often used as a candidate marker. A 538 bp fragment comprising intron 19 of the pig KIT gene was amplified by PCR using specific primers, after which the PCR amplicons of a number of meat samples from KNP and three major improved breeds (Landrace, Duroc and Yorkshire) were sequenced in order to find a nucleotide region suitable for PCR-RFLP analysis. Sequence data showed the presence of two nucleotide substitutions, g.276G>A and g.295A>C, between KNP and the improved pig breeds. Digestion of KIT amplicons with AccII enzyme generated characteristic PCR-RFLP profiles that allowed discrimination between meats from KNP and improved pig. KNP showed three visible DNA bands of 264/249, 199, and 75 bp, whereas DNA bands of 249, 199, and 90 bp were detected in the three improved pig breeds. Therefore, the 75 bp DNA fragment was specific only to KNP, whereas the 90 bp DNA fragment was specific to the improved breeds. The breed-specific DNA markers reported here that target the KIT gene could be useful for the identification of KNP meat from improved pig meats, thus contributing to the prevention of falsified breed labeling.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.485-493
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• 2019

Objective: This study was undertaken to investigate the genetic characteristics of Berkshire (BS), Landrace (LR), and Yorkshire (YS) pig breeds raised in the Great Grandparents pig farms using the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) information. Methods: A total of 25,921 common SNP genotype markers in three pig breeds were used to estimate the expected heterozygosity ($H_E$), polymorphism information content, F-statistics ($F_{ST}$), linkage disequilibrium (LD) and effective population size ($N_e$). Results: The chromosome-wise distribution of $F_{ST}$ in BS, LR, and YS populations were within the range of 0-0.36, and the average $F_{ST}$ value was estimated to be $0.07{\pm}0.06$. This result indicated some level of genetic segregation. An average LD ($r^2$) for the BS, LR, and YS breeds was estimated to be approximately 0.41. This study also found an average $N_e$ of 19.9 (BS), 31.4 (LR), and 34.1 (YS) over the last 5th generations. The effective population size for the BS, LR, and YS breeds decreased at a consistent rate from 50th to 10th generations ago. With a relatively faster $N_e$ decline rate in the past 10th generations, there exists possible evidence for intensive selection practices in pigs in the recent past. Conclusion: To develop customized chips for the genomic selection of various breeds, it is important to select and utilize SNP based on the genetic characteristics of each breed. Since the improvement efficiency of breed pigs increases sharply by the population size, it is important to increase test units for the improvement and it is desirable to establish the pig improvement network system to expand the unit of breed pig improvement through the genetic connection among breed pig farms.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1540-1549
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• 2017

Objective: Increasing food safety demands in the animal product market have created a need for a system to trace the food distribution process, from the manufacturer to the retailer, and genetic traceability is an effective method to trace the origin of animal products. In this study, we successfully achieved the farm tracing of 6,018 multi-breed pigs, using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers strictly selected through least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) feature selection. Methods: We performed farm tracing of domesticated pig (Sus scrofa) from SNP markers and selected the most relevant features for accurate prediction. Considering multi-breed composition of our data, we performed feature selection using LASSO penalization on 4,002 SNPs that are shared between breeds, which also includes 179 SNPs with small between-breed difference. The 100 highest-scored features were extracted from iterative simulations and then evaluated using machine-leaning based classifiers. Results: We selected 1,341 SNPs from over 45,000 SNPs through iterative LASSO feature selection, to minimize between-breed differences. We subsequently selected 100 highest-scored SNPs from iterative scoring, and observed high statistical measures in classification of breeding farms by cross-validation only using these SNPs. Conclusion: The study represents a successful application of LASSO feature selection on multi-breed pig SNP data to trace the farm information, which provides a valuable method and possibility for further researches on genetic traceability.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.898-906
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to investigate differences in the faecal microbial composition among Lantang, Bama, Erhualian, Meishan, Xiaomeishan, Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire sows and to explore the possible link of the pig breed with the gut microbial community. Among the sows, the Meishan, Landrace, Duroc, and Yorkshire sows were from the same breeding farm with the same feed. Fresh faeces were collected from three sows of each purebred breed for microbiota analysis and volatile fatty acid (VFA) determination. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis revealed that samples from Bama, Erhualian, and Xiaomeishan sows, which from different farms, were generally grouped in one cluster, with similarity higher than 67.2%, and those from Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire sows were grouped in another cluster. Principal component analysis of the DGGE profile showed that samples from the foreign breeds and the samples from the Chinese indigenous breeds were scattered in two different groups, irrespective of the farm origin. Faecal VFA concentrations were significantly affected by the pig breed. The proportion of acetate was higher in the Bama sows than in the other breeds. The real-time PCR analysis showed that 16S rRNA gene copies of total bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were significantly higher in the Bama sows compared to Xiaomeishan and Duroc sows. Both Meishan and Erhualian sows had higher numbers of total bacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and sulphate-reducing bacteria as compared to Duroc sows. The results suggest that the pig breed affects the composition of gut microbiota. The microbial composition is different with different breeds, especially between overseas breeds (lean type) and Chinese breeds (relatively obese type).

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.921-927
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• 2011

To compare pork quality from different pig species domesticated for Korean consumers, the meat quality characteristics of 5 different pure breeds of Landrace (L), Yorkshire (Y), Duroc (D), Berkshire (B), and Chester White (C) were determined from the 3 parts of loins, butts, and bellies. The fat content of loins was higher in breed D than in the other breeds, while that of butts and bellies was higher in breed B. The CIE color $a^*$ and $b^*$ values of the loins and butts from breed C were lower than those of the other breeds, but the color values of the belly part did not significantly differ by breed due to the high fat accumulation. The drip loss and cooking loss significantly differed depending on meat parts: breeds D and B were inferior in loins and butts but superior in bellies. The lipid oxidation of raw meat did not increase during the 7 d storage. The cooked butts of breed C had less thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances values than those of the other breeds at 7 d, and the cooked bellies of breeds D and B had less. Moreover, there were only minimal differences in fatty acid compositions by pork breed and part. From the view points of the physicochemical and organoleptic analysis of pork from different pig species, it is estimated that breed D had better meat quality in the loin part and breed B had better meat quality in the butt. The belly meat quality of breed C showed the least value. Although the meat quality of pig species differed depending on the parts and it was difficult to compare the meat quality of a part using the meat quality parameters of another part, the result of this study could provide basic information that can be used to improve the meat quality of different parts of pig species.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.544-553
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• 2018

This study was conducted to determine the effects of breed and sex on meat quality and sensory properties of the loin in three-way crossbred pigs: $Landrace{\times}Yorkshire{\times}Duroc$ (LYD) and $Landrace{\times}Yorkshire{\times}Woori$ (LYW) black pig synthesized by Korean native breed. Carcass traits did not differ by breed. Carcass weight and backfat thickness were higher in castrates than in gilts (p<0.01). LYW showed significant high values in fat content, cooking loss, and water-holding capacity (WHC) than LYD (p<0.05). Redness and yellowness of the meat were higher in LYW than in LYD (p<0.01). Further, LYW had lower pH and shear force than LYD (p<0.001). Significant high scores in color and flavor were obtained in LYW or gilts compared to LYD or castrates by sensory panel, respectively (p<0.05). However, other sensory traits did not differ by breed or sex. Capric acid (C10:0) was higher in LYD than LYW (p<0.001). However, stearic acid (C18:0) and saturated fatty acid (SFA) contents were higher in LYW than LYD (p<0.05). Eicosenoic acid (C20:2) and the n6/n3 ratio were higher in gilts than in castrates, whereas SFA content was higher in castrates than in gilts. These results suggest that certain physicochemical qualities of meat and sensory properties are improved in LYW compared to LYD. This study could provide basic data on meat quality of crossbred pigs with Woori black pig as a terminal sire.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.930-937
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• 2017

Objective: The I pig is a long nurtured longstanding breed in Vietnam, and contains excellent indigenous genetic resources. However, after 1970s, I pig breeds have become a small population because of decreasing farming areas and increasing pressure from foreign breeds with a high growth rate. Thus, there is now the risk of the disappearance of the I pigs breed. The aim of this study was to focus on classifying and identifying the I pig genetic origin and supplying molecular makers for conservation activities. Methods: This study sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome and used the sequencing result to analyze the phylogenetic relationship of I pig with Asian and European domestic pigs and wild boars. The full sequence was annotated and predicted the secondary tRNA. Results: The total length of I pig mitochondrial genome (accession number KX094894) was 16,731 base pairs, comprised two rRNA (12S and 16S), 22 tRNA and 13 mRNA genes. The annotation structures were not different from other pig breeds. Some component indexes as AT content, GC, and AT skew were counted, in which AT content (60.09%) was smaller than other pigs. We built the phylogenetic trees from full sequence and D loop sequence using Bayesian method. The result showed that I pig, Banna mini, wild boar (WB) Vietnam and WB Hainan or WB Korea, WB Japan were a cluster. They were a group within the Asian clade distinct from Chinese pigs and other Asian breeds in both phylogenetic trees (0.0004 and 0.0057, respectively). Conclusion: These results were similar to previous phylogenic study in Vietnamese pig and showed the genetic distinctness of I pig with other Asian domestic pigs.