Sampling and Data Collection

Pig farmers were selected from three of the eight agro-ecological zones in Benin, based on the extent of pig farming in the respective areas (Djimènou et al., 2018). These include (i) zone 6 (Acrisol zone), (ii) zone 7 (Depression zone), and (iii) zone 8 (Fisheries zone) (Figure 2). Data were collected on 284 multiparous native sows from farmers who kept a breeding monitoring sheet. The data collected included sow hair color, litter size (LS), number of live-born piglets (LBP), number of functional teats (TN), age at first mating (AM), age at first farrowing (AF), farrowing interval (FI), number of dead-born piglets (DB), and number of piglets dead before weaning (DW).

Study areas.