Iberian origin of Brazilian local pig breeds based on Cytochrome b (MT-CYB) sequence.

The aim of this work was to investigate the possible origin of local Brazilian pig breeds through Cytochrome b (MT-CYB) mitochondrial analyses. The results indicated that the main local pig breeds descended from two different European maternal lineages, both Iberian varieties. The haplotype relationship analysis showed that Monteiro, Nilo, Piau and Tatu breeds share haplotypes only with Iberian varieties, while the Moura breed presented a different maternal lineage. The Moura appears to share a high frequency of haplotypes with the Black Hairy Iberian variety and Hungarian Mangalica breed.