Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 92 (11): 1296–1299, November 2022/Article https://doi.org/10.56093/ijans.v92i11.125939 Indigenous pig genetic resources: Preliminary documentation of current status and population trend of Tswana pigs in three districts of Botswana KETSHEPHAONE THUTWA 1* , RICKS GALETSENE CHABO 1 , PATRICK MONAMETSI KGWATALALA 1 and SHALAULANI JAMES NSOSO 1 Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana Received: 22 July 2022; Accepted: 23 September 2022 ABSTRACT This study aimed to assess the status, population and population trend of Tswana pigs in three districts of Botswana. A survey was conducted for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2020 in three districts to establish the status of indigenous Tswana pigs in the country in terms of their population. The three districts were Kgatleng, Kweneng and South-East. These districts were purposely chosen because they are the ones which have a considerable number of indigenous Tswana pigs. A structured questionnaire was administered to 71 farmers in 2018, 50 farmers in 2019 and 71 farmers in 2020. The population of indigenous Tswana pigs declined over the three years of study. South-East district had the highest number of indigenous pigs and Kweneng district had the least number during the three years of study. Sows and gilts were more than boars. The average herd size ranged from 3.5 to 20 over the three years. According to risk status classifcation by FAO, the status of indigenous Tswana breed in the southern districts of Botswana is ‘endangered’ and the estimated population growth rate is less than one. There is a strong positive and signifcant difference between the total number of pigs and the number of female pigs. The regression analysis indicated a positive impact of adult female pig numbers on the total number of Tswana pigs. Keywords: Animal genetic resources, Birth rate, Conservation, Death rate, Population trend, Tswana pigs Present address: 1 Department of Animal Sciences, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana. * Corresponding author email: kthutwa@buan.ac.bw Documenting and monitoring the status of animal genetic resources is one of the vital factors for their sustainable use, development, and conservation (FAO 2011, Cao et al. 2021). Indigenous Tswana pigs, just like other indigenous livestock species, are not highly regarded in commercial production system (Halimani 2020). The main reason for that is the slow growth rate compared to the exotic commercial pigs (Wang et al. 2021). Farmers prefer exotic and crossbred pigs due to their large body frame and fast growth rate which makes the pig production enterprise proftable (Silva et al. 2016, Wang et al. 2021). The same scenario was reported by Krishnan et al. (2020) in India. This limits the indigenous pig rearing by the small- holder resource-poor farmers for home consumption and occasional sales (Silva et al. 2016). The preference of exotic breeds over indigenous breeds and indiscriminate crossbreeding practices leaves the indigenous breeds in danger of becoming extinct (Rege and Gibson 2003). It should be noted that even though the indigenous breeds are slow growing and have smaller body frames, they have other good characteristics that may be of beneft to farmers and consumers now and in future. The good characteristics include tolerance to heat, high resistance to diseases and parasites, the ability to utilize low quality feeds and crop residues (Madzimure et al. 2013) and high fertility and longevity. They are adapted to scavenging and backyard systems (Thutwa et al. 2020). Indigenous pigs have also been reported to have tender meat, more fat, good meat (favour) taste and colour (Madzimure et al. 2013, Wang et al. 2021). Previous studies (Madzimure et al. 2013, Thutwa et al. 2020, Bharati et al. 2022) have shown that indigenous pigs are mostly reared by women. Looking at the favourable attributes of Tswana pigs, efforts must be made to conserve this breed. To ensure sustainable utilisation of the indigenous pigs, their slow growth can be complemented by breeding programmes such as well-planned crossbreeding (Huyen et al. 2005). Madzimure et al. (2013) reported that there is high potential to utilize indigenous pigs for crossbreeding with exotic breeds for market-oriented production systems in South Africa. The status of the population can be determined by measuring factors such as population size, mortality and birth rate (Tarsi and Tuff 2012, Singh and Sharma 2017). Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the population trends, risk status, births, deaths and off-take rates of indigenous Tswana pigs in Kgatleng, Kweneng and South-East districts of Botswana. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL AVAILABLE ONLINE 44