I have decided to do my research on pigs. I choose this topic because my favorite animal is a pig, and I would like to get to learn more about them.  The question I am researching is “ Are pigs better than any other livestock and if so why?” I also want to find out what types of pigs are there. And which one is the best to keep as a family pet and why. In my research I discovered that there are two types of pigs, one of them is Asian pigs, and the other is European pigs. They came about around the 18th -19th century and migrated into China. I also learned that Asian and European pig populations were domesticated from different ancestors and that they are expected to have different genetic diversities.  I also discovered that genetic diversity is smaller in a pig than a human and other livestock. European and Asian breeds may have extended linkage disequilibrium (LD). Linkage disequilibrium is also a causation of mutations in pig breeds. In my research I also discovered that the heterozygosity ranged from .35-.60 with an average of .5 across 17 autosomal chromosomes in the European pig breeds. The European values were close to the Asian values. The Asian values were .429 – .67. The heterozygosity was expected to be much higher.

~DM