Redefinition of the mora romagnola pig breed herd book standard based on dna markers useful to authenticate its “mono-breed” products: An example of sustainable conservation of a livestock genetic resource

Mora Romagnola is an autochthonous pig breed, raised in the north of Italy. Mono-breed pork products of this breed are part of important niche value chain that is intrinsically linked to the conservation of this local genetic resources that can only survive due to the premium price that these products can obtain on the market. However, the added value attracts fraudsters that unscru-pulously sell mis-labelled Mora Romagnola products, causing consumer distrust that, in turn, un-dermines the conservation strategy of this breed. To monitor and better characterise this local breed, we phenotyped 826 Mora Romagnola pigs for three breed-specific traits. Then, we genotyped al-most all living sows and boars registered to the Herd Book (n. = 357 animals) for polymorphisms in the MC1R and NR6A1 genes (affecting coat colour and vertebral number, respectively). The results were used to re-define the breed descriptors of the Mora Romagnala breed that included infor-mation on the allowed genotypes at these two genes. A few pigs that did not carry the allowed genotypes were excluded from its Herd Book. Finally, we evaluated the usefulness of these DNA markers to authenticate Mora Romagnola meat against meat derived from other 11 pig breeds and wild boars. To our knowledge, the Mora Romagnola Herd Book is one of the first examples that established a direct link between a genetic standard of a breed with the possibility to authenticate mono-breed products using DNA markers with the specific purpose to combat frauds and, indi-rectly, support the conservation of a livestock genetic resource.