ABSTRACT
Some peculiarities of gene fund and dynamics of populational characters of the oldest in Europe Kakhetian (Georgian) pigs were investigated during 18 years (10 generations). Genetic peculiarity of the aboriginal species populations in conditions of intensive pressure of natural selection and relatively weak artificial selection was determined with the help of codominant alleles of the blood groups E system. Considerable qualitative and quantitative differences were detected between Kakhetian pigs and all subspecies of European boars and domestic pigs of cultured breeds studied. Kakhetian pigs are strongly similar to wild boar, as concerns their morpho-physiological and behavioral characteristics. However, the assumption that they originated from Romanian (Caucasian) wild boar by direct domestication, without hybridization, is wrong, since they have alleles which are never found in European wild boars. The results of comparative study of Kakhetian and other domesticated and wild pig forms characteristics makes it possible to suppose that the presence in Kakhetian pigs gene fund of some alleles of East Asian origin is due to a certain participation of the Large White and Mangalica breeds in their phylogenesis. The two latter breeds, in their turn, obtained these alleles as a result of two waves of pig importation in Europe from the South-East Asia (on the eve of a.d. and about 150-200 years ago). This is indirectly confirmed by historical and zootechnical data.
