Berkshire pig

Berkshire

Champion Berkshire boar at the 2005 Royal Adelaide Show
Conservation status	Rare breed
Country of origin	England
Traits
Pig Sus scrofa domesticus

Berkshire pigs are a rare breed of pig originating from the English county of Berkshire.

Herds of the breed are still maintained in England by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust at Aldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, and by the South of England Rare Breeds Centre in Kent. The Berkshire is listed as vulnerable; as of 2008 fewer than 300 breeding sows were known to exist. Some pigs of the breed are also kept in New Zealand and Australia, but it is estimated that there are now fewer than a hundred purebred sows there.

In the United States, the American Berkshire Association, established in 1875, gives pedigrees only to pigs directly imported from established English herds or to those tracing directly back to such imported animals. The pig is also bred in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, under the trademarked name Kagoshima Kurobuta (かごしま黒豚, lit. Kagoshima black pig).

Culinary uses

Berkshire pork, prized for juiciness, flavour and tenderness, is pink-hued and heavily marbled. Its high fat content makes it suitable for long cooking and high-temperature cooking.

In literature

• The Empress of Blandings in P. G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle series of novels and stories, and the sow Pig-Wig in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Pigling Bland, were both Berkshires.
• The antagonist pig Napoleon in George Orwell's novel Animal Farm is a Berkshire Boar.

External links

• American Berkshire Association
• Berkshire Pig Breeders Club
• Oklahoma State University - Breeds of Livestock - Berkshire