Vietnamese Pot-bellied is the exonym for the Lon I ( vi, Lợn Ỉ, italic=no) or I pig, an endangered traditional Vietnamese

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of small domestic pig. The I is uniformly black and has short legs and a low-hanging belly, from which the name derives. It is reared for meat; it is slow-growing, but the pork has good flavour. The I was depicted in the traditional Đông Hồ paintings of Bắc Ninh province as a symbol of happiness, satiety and wealth.

History

The I is a traditional Vietnamese breed. It is thought to have originated in Nam Định

province of Vietnam On the first tier, Vietnam is divided into fifty-eight provinces (tỉnh) and five municipalities under the command of the central government ( vi, thành phố trực thuộc trung ương). Municipalities are the highest-ranked cities in V ...

, in the Red River Delta. It was the dominant local pig breed in most provinces of the delta, and was widely distributed in Nam Định province and the neighbouring provinces of Hà Nam,

Ninh Bình Ninh Bình () is a small city in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Ninh Bình Province. Geography Ninh Bình Province is located in northern Vietnam comprising 48 square kilometres; the 2007 city population was 130,517 ...

and Thái Bình, as well as in the province of Thanh Hóa immediately to the south, in the North Central Coast region. Until the 1970s the I was probably the most numerous pig breed in northern Vietnam, with numbers running into millions. From that time, the more productive

Móng Cái Móng Cái () is a city of Quảng Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. Located on China–Vietnam border, it sits on the southern bank of Beilun River across Dongxing city of China's Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alte ...

began to supplant it. The

National Institute of Animal Husbandry National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland ...

of Vietnam started a conservation programme, with subsidies for farmers who reared purebred stock, but this had little benefit – there was some increase in numbers, but at the cost of increased inbreeding. In 1991, the total population of the I was estimated at , and by 2010 the estimated number was 120. In 2003 the National Institute of Animal Husbandry listed its conservation status as "critical"; in 2007 the FAO listed it as "endangered". Small numbers of I pigs were exported in the 1960s to Canada and Sweden, to be kept in zoos or to be used for laboratory experiments. Within a decade, the I had spread to animal parks in other countries in Europe; a few were reared on

smallholdings A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

. The I entered the United States from Canada in the mid-1980s, and by the end of the decade the "pot-bellied pig" was being marketed as a pet. Not all of these were purebred, and some grew to considerable size; the fad was short-lived. In 2013 it was declared an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

in Spain.

Characteristics

The I is a small pig, with an average weight of approximately , and an average height of about It is uniformly black, with heavily wrinkled skin. It has a pronounced

sway back Swayback, also known clinically as lordosis, refers to abnormal bent-back postures in humans and in quadrupeds, especially horses. Extreme lordosis can cause physical damage to the spinal cord and associated ligaments and tendons which can lead to ...

and a large sagging belly, which in pregnant sows may drag on the ground. The head is small, with an up-turned

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is c ...

, small ears and eyes, and heavy sagging jowls. The I is robust and has good resistance to disease and to parasites. It is usually raised extensively, and forages well on the rice straw and water plants of its native area. It is particularly well adapted to the marshy and muddy terrain on which it usually lives: it has

plantigrade 151px, Portion of a human skeleton, showing plantigrade habit In terrestrial animals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial mammals. T ...

feet, with weight borne on all four toes of each foot. Two principal types are recognised within the breed: the I-mo or Fatty I is the typical small short-legged pig, with small upward-pointing ears and a short snout; the I-pha or Large I is taller, has longer legs and a longer snout, with bigger ears held horizontally.

History

Characteristics

Notes

References

Further reading