Farming News: Bringing The Cumberland Pig Back From Extinction : chicken farming

The Cumberland pig has been extinct from over 50 years with the last pure bred Cumberland pig is reported to have died in 1960. But at the beginning of 2008 a sow was born that farming news sites are reporting as having 99.6% similarities in DNA to the extinct Cumberland pig. The pig was part of a breeding program set up by Tony Bowes who runs the Wetheriggs Animal Rescue & Conservation centre in Cumbria.
The original Cumberland pig was used to make the traditional Cumberland sausages and Cumberland ham but the breed developed slowly and the meat was rather fatty and so by the 1950’s quicker maturing breeds were preferred. The Cumberland pig was cross-bred with Yorkshire white pig, to which it was closely related and eventually through this interbreeding, the likes of the Large White, Small White and Middle White breeds were evolved. These were preferred to the old native Cumberland breed and so the Cumberland pig began to die out. More intensive farming practices led to a decline of many native breeds.
According to farming news, this inventive breeding program took the DNA from an old Cumberland pig hide and the DNA sequence was compared to various pig breeds from around the world. It was discovered that the Cumberland pig was closely related to the Gloucester Old Spot, Oxford Sandy and Black pigs and the small Polynesian Kune Kune pigs. Through various breeding experiments, piglets were selected who’s DNA was closer to the original Cumberland pig. Now, through continued breeding programs, farming news reports are saying that Mr Bowes thinks it is likely they will have re-created an exact replica of the original Cumberland pig with the exact same DNA in around 3 to 4 years time.
Such experimental breeding programs provide great hope that extinct farm animals, native to certain areas and conditions, could be brought back from extinction. Indeed a similar breeding program brought the Oxford Sandy & Black pig breed back from extinction. However, as stated in various farming news articles, the rare breeds survival trust will not recognise these ‘new’ recreated breeds.

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