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| Domestic Pig | |
|---|---|
| |
| Sow and five piglets | |
| Conservation status | |
| Template:StatusDomesticated | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Suidae |
| Genus: | Sus |
| Species: | S. scrofa |
| Binomial name | |
| Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Sus domesticus | |
The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some authors call it S. domesticus, reserving S. scrofa for the wild boar. It was domesticated approximately 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Pigs are found across Europe, the Middle East and extend into Asia as far as Indonesia and Japan. The distinction between wild and domestic animals is slight, and domestic pigs have become feral in many parts of the world (for example, New Zealand) and caused substantial environmental damage.
Sus scrofa has four subspecies, each occupying distinct geographical areas:
- Sus scrofa scrofa (western Africa, Europe)
- Sus scrofa ussuricus (northern Asia and Japan)
- Sus scrofa cristatus (Asia Minor, India)
- Sus scrofa vittatus (Indonesia)
Pigs were brought to southeastern North America from Europe by De Soto and other early Spanish explorers. Escaped pigs became feral and were freely used by Native Americans as food.
As food
The primary use of the domestic pig is as a meat animal. The meat from a pig is called pork.
Popular food products made of pork include sausage, bacon, ham, pig knuckles, etc. The head of a pig can be used to make head cheese. Liver, chitterlings, and other offal from pigs are also widely used for food, although their consumption is less common in certain countries, including United States.
In certain religions, especially Judaism and Islam, eating the meat of pigs is forbidden.
Factory Farmed Pigs
In industrialized nations, domestic pigs are often raised in large-scale factory farms where the meat can be mass-produced. As these techniques were refined throughout the 20th century, some practices were criticised as cruel or inhumane to the animals. Many countries have introduced regulation to control this, and the farmers and industries themselves have learned that looking after their animals is better for their animals as well. For example the USA National Pork Board produced a document called Take Care
The air which factory farmed pigs breathe may be polluted with dander, dust and fumes from pigs’ urine and faeces if the sheds are not properly ventilated. Many suffer respiratory disease. Salmonella and gastroenteritis infections are also endemic in overcrowded piggeries.
Commercial sows may produce over twenty piglets per year in two litters. Some sows spend their pregnancy in gestation crates, which are so small that they cannot turn round or lie down comfortably, although these have now been banned in many countries. Towards the end of their pregnancy they are often transferred to farrowing pens. 15% of piglets die within two or three weeks of birth. The major contributor to this (both indoors and outdoors) is being crushed by their mother, so a farrowing pen is designed to provide a space for the piglets that the mother cannot lie on .
Piglets can be subjected to a range of mutilations without anaesthetic including Castration, tail docking to reduce tail biting, teeth clipped (to reduce injuring their mother's nipples and in later life to keep their teeth from killing them by entering their skulls (in the wild this would not be a problem b/c they would be worn off) and their ears notched to help identification.
Piglets are weaned and removed from their mothers between two and five weeks old and placed in sheds of metal and concrete. According to "Factory Pork Production" (an animal rights activist website), the National Hog Farmer magazine advised, "Crowding Pigs Pays...", and pigs may suffer sores due to cramped conditions and lack of straw or other bedding. It claims that an industry representative wrote, “straw is very expensive and there certainly would not be a supply of straw in the country to supply all the farrowing pens in the U.S”.
Many of the pork products purchased in supermarkets and restaurants in industrial countries come from these types of farms.
Extensively Farmed Pigs
However, in developing nations and rural areas of developed nations, the domestic pig is frequently raised outdoors in yards. In some cases pigs are even raised in open fields where they are allowed to forage; they are watched by swineherds, essentially shepherds for pigs. It is claimed that the meat is more tender and tasteful, and if space is not an issue, economics of farming better with relaxed, happy and healthy animals.
Slaughter of Pigs
Crowding pigs during transport to slaughter saves money. According to "Factory Pork Production", an industry expert wrote, “Death losses during transport are too high — amounting to more than $8 million per year. But it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why we load as many hogs on a truck as we do. It's cheaper. So it becomes a moral issue. Is it right to overload a truck and save $.25 per head in the process, while the overcrowding contributes to the deaths of 80,000 hogs each year?”
In the USA, the federal Humane Slaughter Act requires pigs to be stunned before slaughter, however there is sometimes insufficient compliance or enforcement.
As pets
Pigs are known to be intelligent animals and have been found to be more trainable than dogs or cats. Asian pot-bellied pigs, a smaller subspecies of the domestic pig, have made popular house pets in the United States beginning in the latter half of the 20th century. Regular domestic farmyard pigs have also been known to be kept indoors, but due to their large size and destructive tendancies, they typically need to be moved into an outdoor pen as they grow older.
Breeds of pigs
Breeds within the UK
In the UK, pig breeds are generally classified into two groups:
- Traditional
- Berkshire
- Hampshire
- Large Black
- Large White
- Middle White
- Tamworth
- Wessex Saddleback
- Chester White
- Gloucestershire Old Spots
- Oxford Sandy and Black
- British Lop
- Welsh
- Modern
- Duroc
- Landrace
Breeds outside the UK
Pig breeds outside the UK include:
- Zungo
- Yanan
- West French White
- Vietnamese Potbelly
- Spotted
- Red Wattle
- Norwegian Yorkshire
- Kune-Kune (pronounced "koonee-koonee")