The programme, unveiled at Changsha's Pig Breeding technical seminar and Pork Development Conference, claimed to have overcome some of the most vexing problems facing the pork industry today.

The programme, developed by the university's Assistant Professor Wen Lixing, targeted issues in pig breeding, including immune systems reactivity, heat reactivity and foot-and-mouth disease. Besides offering heightened disease resistance in pigs, the programme also offered a lowering of days to market from 165 to 135 days while improving meat quality.

The research team has applied for six patents and have received two national patents so far.

The programme, which has been adopted in 18 provinces, has been designated as a priority programme for national dissemination by China's Agriculture Department. The Department plans to train 1,000 personnel in the programme. The trained personnel would then be sent to technical improvement and feed development centres all over the country to train more than 100,000 hog farmers.

For information on this and other China market reports by eFeedLink, e-mail [email protected]