A blond Mangalitsa young boar , a Berkshire boar and two Turopolje boars .
Mangaliza (c) HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Potyka R.
The first of the four boars is Baldi, a young Mangalitsa boar of the blond variety. He was born on May 5, 2024 , making him the oldest of the group. Since our gene bank currently only contains seven Mangalitsa boars, distributed across the blond, red, and swallow-bellied color varieties , he is a welcome addition to help expand the gene bank. His father comes from Hungary and his mother from a German breeder . Baldi's litter was planned using his parents' genotyping data to prevent inbreeding. Three of his siblings were exported to Great Britain to revitalize the Mangalitsa breeding program there.
Turopolje (c) HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Potyka R.
The two Turopolje boars are particularly special. They were conceived using frozen semen , a technique common in cattle breeding but rarely used in pigs. Their father, the boar Moses, was born in 1996 and belonged to the first generation of Turopolje pigs born in Austria. Moses' parents, the boar Mohar and the sow Draga, are one of two breeding pairs imported to Austria in 1994 during the turmoil of the Yugoslav Wars. Moses' semen was collected in 2001 and frozen in the gene bank at the Institute of Biology. To revive his line and broaden the gene pool of the Turopolje breed, some of the semen was thawed in 2024 and used by a private breeder to inseminate his sow. The two boars currently at the Institute of Biology come from this litter. They are intended to provide their seeds as a new generation , so that material will be available in the future to broaden the gene pool
Berkshire (c) HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Potyka R.
While the aforementioned boars were loaned to the gene bank by breeders and will be returned to their owners after their service, the Berkshire boar and a gilt are owned by the Bio-Institute. They belong to a project led by Markus Gallnböck, which is establishing a registered breeding program for this old English pig breed in Austria. Like some other heritage pig breeds, the Berkshire pig exhibits high-quality meat , resulting in part from its high intramuscular fat content . This trait is retained even when crossed with modern high-performance breeds. Therefore, they are suitable as breeding partners for the production of fattening pigs with exceptionally high-quality meat .
Together, these animals represent a small segment of the genetic diversity of farm animals, and their mere existence is an excellent testament to the successful work of many dedicated breeders, researchers, and supporters.
