Uganda and East Africa have made a significant stride in pig breeding with the importation of premium great grandparent breed lines (GGPs), paving the way for enhanced pork production efficiency.
The GGPs, sourced from Nucleus SAS France, a company dealing in livestock business, included both commercial female lines (Pietrain nn, Durco and Vigor) and maternal female lines (Landrace and Large White).
The pigs which landed at Entebbe airport on July 17, will be distributed to three central breeding units in the region (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania).
The central breeding units in Uganda and Tanzania will focus on production of maternal grandparent lines (GPs). The Kenya central breeding unit will focus on production of commercial boars.
The livestock was imported by Prime Pork (U) Limited, together with partners: Jolly Pig Farm (U) Limited, Herdspal (U) Limited, Ogal Farm – Kenya and Genomex Tanzania Limited.
“This is a big leap in pig breeding for Uganda and the East African region,” Christopher Mulindwa, who received the consignment at the airport said.
Mulindwa is a pig farming consultant, trainer at the Harvest Money expo and piggery entrepreneur.
According to Mulindwa, in pig breeding, GGPs are used to produce maternal grandparent lines and paternal grandparent commercial boars (GPs) through pure breeding.
The GPs are then used to produce parent lines (F1) through another method known as crossbreeding. The parent line or F1 is then bred with a commercial boar to produce pigs meant for slaughter.
Importation cost to reduce
“East African countries have been spending millions of dollars in importation of both maternal grandparent lines (GP), commercial boars and parent lines (F1). The local production of GPs and F1 is going to reduce the cost of importation for both breed-lines from sh7.5m and sh3.5m, respectively to sh3m and sh1.5m, respectively,” Mulindwa said.
Commonest breeds
Dr Emma Naluyima, a veterinary officer and pig breeder, noted that the commonest breeds in Uganda are the large white, landrace and camborough.
“Farmers like breeds like Camborough for their mothering and weight gain abilities,” Naluyima noted.
With the introduction of these breeds, farmers will now have another alternative.
High birth rate
“The maternal lines have the capacity to produce over 20 piglets, have high milking ability, high fertility and more than 16 teats. The commercial lines grow faster, consume less feed, have lower fat levels and yield a lot of meat,” Mulindwa said.
The Pietrain commercial boar produces 1,250g of live body weight for every 2kg of a well-mixed feed consumed.
All these increase production efficiency, hence helping a farmer recover a portion of profit taken by increasing prices of farm inputs most, especially feeds.
No fake breeds
Mulindwa said alongside the great grandparent breed lines (GGPs), Cooperl-France, a group that owns the Nucleus, supplied technology that will aid in identification and traceability of grandparent lines (GPs) and parent lines (F1).
This will deter the sale of fake breeds purported to be similar to the imported ones. Each of the GGPs has a tag, which is readable by a machine that has software, which confirms the breed’s authenticity.
The offspring of the GGPs will also be identified the same way.
