If pigs could float....

Never let it be forgotten that a Yorkshire pig research company played a major part in helping the PIC International Group to float successfully on the stock exchange on Monday.

The PIC, or Pig Improvement Company, was all that was left in the disbandment of agricultural giants Dalgety Plc, which closed after 114 years as a quoted company last Friday.

Three years ago, like a sow devouring its young, PIC ate up the National Pig Development Company, near Driffield, a research centre which used genetics to revolutionise livestock farming in a way that cloned Dolly the Sheep has hardly begun to match.

And it was perfectly positioned to supply east and North Yorkshire, which has the greatest concentration of pig farmers in the world.

It all began with Bubble, the fond name for an immensely shapeless Chinese Meishan pig, skin as folded as a bloodhound's and frilled with teats.

Over the late 1980s and early '90s frenetic experimentation resulted in a genetic line that turned the lineage of Bubble from the fat 'n' frowsy, terrible-looking, but tasty sow she was into the flush-pink, smooth-bodied, sweet-faced and sleek creature dubbed Squeak.

But it was the similarities, all 18 of them, that made Squeak, a hybrid Manor Meishan, such an amazing genetic breakthrough.

Like Bubble (her great-great great grandma), Squeak has 18 teats and averages 16 piglets per litter. Compare that with yer hog-standard British commercial pig which has but 12 teats and averages 11 piglets.

Moreover Squeak's young grew quicker and healthier on less food. No wonder hundreds of thousands of Manor Meishans are nowadays to be found on farms in North Yorkshire and beyond.

The Manor Meishan is one of a number of genetically-engineered breeds for which the PIC is famous, but there are few which have had as great an impact on the farming community in Britain.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.