Pig reproduction in South East Asia

Asia with over half the population in the world has a thriving agriculture, a large part of which is devoted to pig production. The efficiency of production varies from country to country and is largely the legacy of whether the country relies on backyard farms using native breeds or intensive commercial farms using genetically improved breeds from Europe and North America. Reproductive efficiency is not as advanced as in Europe and this is the result of climatic conditions, which are hot and humid, the presence of most pig diseases, substandard management, the difficulty of obtaining quality feeds and appropriate delivery systems and the reliance on native breeds which are far less prolific than European ones. Improvements can only occur if investments are made in housing, cooling systems, disease control, management, quality feeds and better genetics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.