National Research Centre on Pig
(ISO 9001:2008 Certified)
Brief Profile of the Institute:
Pig rearing is one of the most important occupation of rural society especially the tribal masses of India. It has largely remained under nomadic system of rearing (scavenging) with the weaker sections of the society both as a source of income and a choice of meat for consumption. The bulk of the pig population in India is indigenous type with low growth rate and productivity. In order to improve the performance of indigenous pigs, ICAR has initiated AICRP on Pig in the year 1971. The review committee of AICRP on Pig in the year 1990 felt the necessity for establishing a full-fledged institute and recommended the establishment of National Research Centre on Pig preferably in the North Eastern part of the country where 40% of country’s pig population is distributed.
Accordingly National Research Centre on Pig was established on 4th September, 2002 and started functioning from 2005 at a rented house in Guwahati and permanently shifted to the main campus in the year 2009 after completion of the laboratory-cum-administrative building. Presently the institute is engaged in all aspects of basic and strategic research on pigs besides trying its level best to bring overall development in the piggery sector of the country. In addition, this institute has 10 All India Coordinated Research Projects on Pig (AICRP on Pig), 4 Mega Seed Projects on Pig and one Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), each of which has separate activity with the ultimate aim of developing sustainable technology or packages and practices that can be transferred to the end users i.e. pig farmers. This is the only pioneer Institute in the country which has the sole responsibility to look out the overall development of the piggery sector to bring in excellence in pig production, health and product processing through innovative research in order to provide technology backstopping for enhanced pork production, employment generation and poverty reduction among socially and economically weaker sections through the medium of pig husbandry.
Date of establishment: 4th September 2002 (foundation stone laying)
Date of inauguration: 20th May, 2009
Technological Development
Breed Evaluation and Characterization
Genetic characterization of two phenotypically different strains of indigenous pigs viz. Ghungroo and Niang Megha was done to establish their morphological, morphometrical, cytogenetic and DNA profile as per FAO recommended microsatellite doci. The productive and reproductive traits of these breeds were evaluated whereby facilitated to register them as first Indigenous pig breeds of India. The Institute was successful in the process whereby the two breeds were recognized and registered by NBAGR in May, 2012.
Ghungroo breed Niang Megha breed
Suitable Indigenous Strains Of Pig For Popularization At Farmer’s Field
Institute has identified a suitable strain of indigenous pig namely ‘Ghungroo’ from Tarai Region of North Bengal. The breed hasbeen evaluated for productive and reproductive traits under farm conditions for several years, and found to have good productive and reproductive performance. Accordingly,the breed has been distributed to the farmers for its popularization at field conditions and the litter size at birth was found up to 17 numbers at Institute farm and 14 numbers at farmer’s field.
Production of Improved Variety of Crossbred Pig:
Considering the importance of upgraded variety of pigs for the farmers, the institute has developed an improved variety of crossbred pig by crossing Ghungroo (indigenous) with Hampshire (exotic) breeds.The crossbred pig is found to have superior growth rate, litter size at birth and weaning and feed conversion efficiency. This technology has been validated at farmers’ field through IVLP programme of the institute.
Crossbred sow with piglets
Preservation of Boar Semen and Artificial Insemination In Pigs
Standardized the technology for extended preservation of liquid boar semen at 15C in GEPS extender up to 7 days. The institute has also standardized methods for AI in pig under farm and field conditions and the technology has been found to be readily acceptable by the client group. So far, a total of 5770 piglets were born (through AI) out of 677 farrowings with a success rate of above 80% in the farmers’ herds. More than 85% of rural farmers adopted the technology and they are highly satisfied due to financial benefit. The institute could spread the technology to more than 82 villages till date with some of them is even more than 250 km away from the Institute. With adoption of this technology, the tribal and weaker sections of the society could improve of their livelihood through production of upgraded variety of pig. This successful project exemplifies the efforts of the ICAR in assisting farmers to improve livestock productivity and food security and thus alleviating poverty.
AI at farmer’s field
Development
Developed and standardized various PCR protocols for rapid detection of bacterial diseases caused different pathogens viz. Staphylococcus hyicus, S. aureus and P. multocida. In addition, epidemiological studies are underway to find out bacterial agents associated with respiratory diseases of pigs.
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Piglets affected with Greasy pig disease |
Development of PCR for detection of S. hyicus |
Unconventional Feed Resources for Economic Pig Production:
Nutritional requirement for starter pigs has been developed and formulation of economic rations for application in farmers’ field has been standardized. Nutritional analysis of locally available unconventional feed recourses and optimizing the economic feeding practices for pigs through effective utilization is in progress. Studies indicated that 10 % replacement of whole concentrate with colocasia (stem and leaves) and 2 % replacement of maize with Azola (Azola carolini) can meet the nutritional requirement of grower crossbred (HS X GH) pigs without affecting the growth rate, feed conversion efficiency and cost of production. Colocasia and Azola contain 11.57 % and 21 % crude protein respectively.
Processing
State-of the-art slaughter house in the Institute is fully equipped with all the modern equipments to replace the manual slaughter. The Institute has already standardized the technologies for refinement and standardization of different value added pork products viz. frankfurter, salami, cocktails, ham slices, patties, nuggets, kebab, momos etc.
Value added pork products
Public Private Partnership Initiative
The Institute has established close linkage with small-scale entrepreneurs who are willing to take up the improvised technologies/products from the Institute and willing to market the fresh pork and processed pork products. In this regards,a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with M/s Arohan Foods, Guwahati for a period of 3 years to start a Joint Venture operation for processing and marketing of value added products. Recently, four different products i.e. frankfurters, cocktails, salami and nuggets were released for marketing under the brand name of ‘Choice Pork’.
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| Launching of value added products for commercial sale | Packaged pork products for marketing |
Validation of Technologies
The upgraded variety of pigs developed by crossing Ghungroo with Hampshire has been transferred through Institute Village Linking Programme for validation of its performance at farmer’s field. This variety of pig is gaining popularity among the farmers due to its high litter size at birth and adaptability. The AI programme was initiated for the first time in Assam under Institute Village Link Project (IVLP) in the year 2009 with an aim to distribute good quality germplasm and to validate the developed technology at farmer’s field. The artificial insemination technology has been transferred to the farmer’s field covering a distance of 250 km and till date more than 2500 AI has been done in the farmers’ field.
List of publications
- Research Articles: Total 28 (International-11, National-17)
- Books (3)
- Technical bulletins/training manuals (5)
- Leaflets/brochures (3
- Annual Reports (6 No’s
- Swine News (8 No’s)