Proposal of genetic traceability for Cinta Senese products

Cinta Senese is an autochthonous white belted pig breed, whose products are characterized by a high quality due mainly to the raw material. Prices of Cinta Senese products are still too high for a market basically founded on trust among breeders, producers and consumers. The institution of a protocol for a DNA-based traceability of Cinta Senese products would be desirable. Coat colour genes could allow to distinguish this belted breed from the most widespread breeds reared in Italy. Four polymorphisms at locus MC1R and one at locus KIT were analyzed in 180 Cinta Senese (CS) purebreed, 18 F1 Large White x CS and 15 F1 Duroc x CS. Cinta Senese is homozygous i/i at locus KIT, whereas it shows two allelic forms at locus MC1R: E-P and E-D2. These results allow to outline a traceability marker-based protocol with only two simple tests.