Apulo-Calabrese Pig

The aim of the present chapter is to present history and current status of Apulo-Calabrese pig breed, one of the local pig breeds investigated in the project TREASURE. Apulo-Calabrese breed is one of the Italian autochthonous pig breeds. Its origin dates back to the Roman times, but it suffered a drastic decline during the past century and the recovery started in the 1990s. A herd book for this breed was established in 2001, but its performances and products are practically untapped. There are 45 registered farms with around 500 breeding sows and 100 boars. Apulo-Calabrese pig is characterised by black coat colour. On average sows of Apulo-Calabrese pig breed have 1.7 litters per year with 6.9 piglets. Regarding growth performances, the potential of Apulo-Calabrese pigs in ad libitum conditions of feeding is high (≈762 g/day in middle fattening stage) although information on feed intake and feed nutritional value was scarce, which limits the evaluation of growth potential. Data on body composition, carcass traits and meat and fat quality are scarce. The present review gives a first insight into this local pig breed.