Peculiarities of growth and development of pigs of different genotypes

Abstract

In accelerating the rate of filling the domestic market with meat of domestic production, a pivotal role belongs to pig breeding. To make this industry profitable, it is necessary to take care every day to improve the selection, conditions of housing and feeding of animals. Improving the productive qualities of pigs in order to increase meat production is one of the most important tasks of Ukrainian pig breeding. Pigs are characterized by a high growth rate, due to the accumulation in the body of active, mainly proteinaceous substances, the process of increasing its size and live weight is underway. In the process of growth and development, all economically useful traits are formed. The nature of the growth and development of pigs depends on the genotype, conditions of housing, feeding, etc. Researches of scientists have determined that the linear growth of animals in the process of their development increases at a slower rate than the growth of the living weight, and individual body measurements vary with different intensities. Age changes in the structure of animals are due, to a large extent, to the different intensity of growth of their skeleton at different stages of individual development. In the article it is presented the results of studies of the dynamics of changes in the weight of experimental young animals with optimal and intensive fattening. Experiments have shown that at different levels of fattening up to 100 kg, the animals of breeds of with the Poltava Meaty and the Red White belted had the largest absolute increase, this index continued to increase, and when the animals reached 125 kg, the animals of Myrgorod breed had the smallest absolute increase. Also, changes were made in the linear measurements of experimental animals. The results showed that with the age of the animals the absolute indexes of all measurements increased. The animals of the breed Landrace were superior to their counterparts from other groups along the length of the trunk and the depth of the chest. The chest girth was the largest in the youngster pigs of Myrgorod breed, the animals of Landrace were the tallest at the withers. At an increased level of fattening, the greatest length of the trunk was observed in animals of the Poltava Meaty breed. They also had the highest height at the withers and a small chest girth. Pigs of the Large White breed had intermediate indexes. In terms of the coverage of the brush, there was no significant difference, and the depth of the chest was dominated by pigs of Myrgorod breed. Key words: growth, development, gain, ontogeny, measurements, indexes, age changes.