The Chato Murciano is the only surviving breed of pig of those historically farmed in the region of Murcia for their quality meat. At present, it is on the verge of extinction, having a population of only 260 reproductive animals. This paper describes the genetic studies made in the conservation and recovery programme of this breed of pig. A study of the morphological characterization of these animals was carried out first, measuring thirteen quantitative and six qualitative variables in a sample of 24 adult animals, 8 males and 16 females.
Subsequently, investigation was made of the consanguinity of the individuals and of the population as well as the future influence of inbreeding in each generation. Finally, the accuracy and precision of the heterozygote-excess method was evaluated using two data sets from the Chato Murciano pig. One data set is an original population and the other is a F3+F4+F5 generation of a line created from mating a Chato Murciano female with a Large White boar as part of an absorption programme based on backcrosses with Chato Murciano boars.
