Meishan Pig

A Chinese breed of domestic pig, named for Meishan County in Jiangsu Province and a sub-group of the Taihu; it is a small- to medium-sized pig with large drooping ears and wrinkled black skin, native to southern China. The breed is best known for its large litters of fifteen to twenty-two piglets, which led the USDA Agricultural Research Service to import it to the United States in 1989; all US research on the Meishan was terminated in 2016 and the remaining pigs were dispersed to farmers. In 2018 the Meishan was declared critically endangered worldwide by the Livestock Conservancy, and is now the focus of a conservation effort involving the Livestock Conservancy and the American Meishan Breeders Association, with the number of US breeders rising thanks to the breed's adaptability to small holder farms.