Disputed Meishan breed traits

This note is a research collation of where published descriptions of the Meishan pig disagree. It does not propose a breed standard. Claims are taken from the sources already collected in Sources plus a few additional official or near-official Chinese descriptions cited below.

The disagreements are not all of the same kind. Some are real type differences inside China (Small vs Medium Meishan). Some are US versus Chinese registry language. Some are measurement figures that cannot all be true of the same age and type. Some are popular-English errors.

Why the descriptions diverge

1. China treats Small and Medium Meishan as distinct type-groups. GB/T 40156-2021 writes adult measurements in two rows, Small Meishan and Medium Meishan. Chinese Wikipedia, citing Zhongguo Meishan Zhu (2014), says Medium animals have thicker, coarser skin and many deep forehead wrinkles, while Small animals have thinner skin and fewer wrinkles. The Livestock Conservancy and Rico Silvera state that the 1989 US import was Medium only, and that the Large type is extinct. A single English “Meishan look” therefore mixes two Chinese types plus one US population.

2. The US association does not use a scored Chinese-style standard. AMBA publishes a prose Breed Description and allows grade “pure on appearance” females (Conservancy page). Chinese documents give cull rules (e.g. fewer than eight pairs of teats: DB3205/T 101—2018 梅山种猪饲养管理技术规程).

3. Taihu pig versus Meishan pig. Older Chinese and FAO-style writing treats Meishan as one leiquan (class-group) of Taihu pig, together with Erhualian, Fengjing, Jiaxing Black, Hengjing, Mi, and Shawutou. GB/T 40156-2021 is a Meishan-only national standard. A 2011-2012 Chinese breed-book revision is widely said to have listed Meishan as its own local breed rather than only a Taihu strain. English sources still say “a sub-group of the Taihu pig.”

4. US research herds drifted. AMBA’s history page cites Blackburn et al. (2014): after twenty years of isolation, USDA and Iowa State Meishans had differentiated from the 1989 Chinese samples and from each other. Member breeders report visible bloodline differences. That is a documented reason US animals may not match a Chinese photograph.

1. Wrinkles (how wrinkly)

This is the most visually contested trait.

Dispute. Chinese national language allows both lightly and heavily wrinkled heads, which matches the Small/Medium split. Popular English, and AMBA’s mature-fold language, push the breed toward the heavily wrinkled Medium (and Shar-Pei) end. A relatively smooth-headed pig could be on-type in GB/T 40156 and off-type in US popular writing. Conversely, a pig wrinkled over the body and rump fits some Taihu-group descriptions and is not required by GB/T 40156 or AMBA.

Wrinkles also increase with age and fatness in every source that mentions timing (AMBA: “as they mature”). Judging piglets against adult fold-depth is therefore not supported even by the wrinkle-heavy descriptions.

2. White coloring (socks, nose, belly, belt)

This is the sharpest China-US clash.

Chinese official and official-adjacent language

• GB/T 40156-2021: Coat predominantly black. Limb ends white, “commonly called four white feet.” Some animals have white on the snout, underside of the belly, or tail tip. White is listed as a breed character, not as optional decoration.
• Jiading Meishan (Baidu Baike geographic-indication text): Black coat; skin black or purplish red; four white feet; a little white belly and “jade nose”; eight or more pairs of teats; adult boars 350 lb+, sows 330 lb+.
• CDAD-IS: Head black; limbs white; trunk black.
• Taiwan Livestock Research Institute / MOA: Limb ends white, “four white feet.” In the related KHAPS Black Pig registration (Meishan foundation stock), Taiwan required Meishan-type animals with no white on the belly and white on the limbs not extending above the knee. That is a conservation-herd rule, not GB/T, but it shows how far white is allowed to run in a Chinese-derived program.
• CAAA Taihu description: Limbs and nose white; abdomen purplish red.

AMBA language

• Light gray to dark gray (not “black”).
• White or pink socks are common.
• Socks may or may not be present on all four hooves.
• Pink may occur on the nose and on the belly as high as the belt line, with sparse almost-white hair bordering the pink.
• Full white belting of any kind, or color in areas not listed, is “probable genetic contamination.”

A December 2021 AMBA member-forum post restates the same rule in plainer words: pigs “can have white, pink, or no socks,” and “pink bellies up to the lower [body].”

Disputes.

1. Must there be four white feet? China names the trait four white feet. AMBA explicitly allows missing socks, including none.
2. How far up the leg? GB/T says “extremities of the limbs.” Taiwan conservation language stopped white at the knee. AMBA says socks “extending above a cloven hoof” with no upper bound except the anti-belt rule.
3. White versus pink. China writes white hair/skin. AMBA treats pink skin and white hair as the same allowed marking class.
4. Belly white. China: partial white on the underside is a known Meishan marking. AMBA: pink up to the belt line is allowed; a full belt is contamination. How much belly pink is “part of the belly” versus “a belt” is not drawn.
5. Nose. China: some animals have a white snout (jade nose in Jiading usage). AMBA: pink on the tip of the nose is allowed.
6. Solid black legs. Compatible with AMBA; hard to square with “four white feet” as a breed nickname in China.

No source in this set gives a square-inch rule of the Berkshire type. The dispute is qualitative: required white points versus optional socks, and where pink belly stops being Meishan and starts being a belt.

3. Coat color and hair

Dispute. Chinese standards and conservation text stay on black, with bluish gray as a secondary shade. AMBA’s published color is a gray range. Sparse hair is not disputed. Whether a pale silver-gray pig with little black pigment is still Meishan is a live US/China difference: it fits AMBA’s words and does not fit GB/T “coat predominantly black.”

4. Skin color (not the same as hair)

GB/T 40156: abdominal skin mostly purplish red. Jiading: skin black or purplish red. Taihu-group texts: abdomen often purplish red. AMBA: pink on nose and belly, light-colored hooves. English popular pages say “wrinkled black skin.”

Dispute. Purple-red belly skin is a Chinese type character. Pink belly skin is an AMBA allowed marking. Black skin on the body is required or typical in Chinese text and in The Pig Site; AMBA never requires black skin, only gray hair and limits on white/pink.

5. Size, weight, and which type is “the” Meishan

Published adult figures do not describe one animal.

Chinese national standard (GB/T 40156-2021), Small Meishan adults

(Converted from the published metric table: males 126.99+/-4.69 kg, 126.3 cm, 71.6 cm, 122.8 cm; females 121.10+/-8.56 kg, 118.5 cm, 62.4 cm, 111.0 cm.)

Medium Meishan rows were not in the public preview.

Other Chinese figures

• Wikipedia / Zhongguo Meishan Zhu (2014): Medium males 425 lb, females 381 lb; heights 35 in and 30 in. Small males 287 lb, females 269 lb; heights 32 in and 27 in. (Converted from 192.56+/-4.80 kg and 172.84+/-4.32 kg; 89.17 cm and 76.03 cm; 130 kg and 122 kg; 80.75 cm and 67.67 cm.)
• Jiading GI: Medium-to-large, sturdy; adult boars 350 lb+, sows 330 lb+. (Converted from 160 kg+ and 150 kg+.)
• CDAD-IS: Medium boars 409 lb, sows 295 lb; Small sows 271 lb. (Converted from 185.75 kg, 133.59 kg, 122.87 kg. The Small-boar weight field is garbled on the published page.)
• Taihu umbrella (CAAA): adult boars 282-423 lb, sows 225-379 lb – a range across Taihu types, Meishan at the large end. (Converted from 128-192 kg and 102-172 kg.)

US association and conservation

• AMBA: 250 to 400 lb at maturity.
• Livestock Conservancy: males 275-375 lb, females 300-400 lb.
• Silvera: US stock is Medium type; typically 300-400 lb.

Older English / FAO-style numbers (The Pig Site; Oklahoma State cites FAO APH Paper 46)

• Sows about 23 in high, 39 in chest, 135-136 lb live weight; 240-day weight 170.5 lb. (Converted from 57.8 cm, 100 cm, 61.1-61.6 kg.)

Dispute. The FAO/Pig Site sow (about 135 lb, 23 in tall) is far below every Chinese adult table and below AMBA’s 250 lb floor. It is probably a young animal, a different measuring age, or a Small-type or mixed Taihu figure reused as “Meishan.” US 300-400 lb animals sit at the top of Chinese Medium weights (about 380-425 lb) and above GB/T Small adults (about 270 lb). “Medium-sized” in AMBA English is not the same interval as Small/Medium in GB/T.

Why the draft standard treats the US herd as Medium only.

The proposal is Medium-only because that is what the US-side historical sources say was imported, not because Small Meishan is an invalid Chinese type.

1. The 1989 shipment is described as one type. The Livestock Conservancy: there were three sub-types (small, middle, large); only small and middle remain in China; “In the US, only the middle type exists.” Rico Silvera (then Association president), Small Farmer’s Journal: “All of the Meishans imported to the US in 1989 were of the medium variety.” No US source in this set claims Small animals were in the USDA / Iowa State / Illinois allocation.

2. China already kept the types apart. After the 1960s-70s, Small (fine-foot) and Medium (coarse-foot) were managed as separate conservation populations. A 99-pig research export, split evenly by sex and genetic profile among three labs for a prolificacy study, is the kind of shipment that takes one defined type, not a mix of two conservation breeds.

3. Large is gone; Small was not the export. Large is extinct. Small still exists on Chinese farms. If the US had received Small, someone on the import or Conservancy side would have said so. They said middle/medium.

4. Published US weights sit on the Medium side of the Chinese tables. Association copy is 250-400 lb; Conservancy 275-375 / 300-400; Silvera typically 300-400. Chinese Medium adults are about 330-425 lb. Chinese Small adults are about 265-290 lb. The US marketing window is Medium, with a low end that can overlap Small if an animal is young, thin, or from a lighter bloodline.

5. What a smaller, smoother US pig is more likely to be. The three research herds spent 20-plus years isolated and, per Blackburn et al. (2014) as cited by the Association, drifted from each other. Age, feed, and bloodline will change weight and wrinkle on Medium animals. GB/T also allows forehead wrinkles “few or many” inside the breed. A mature US pig that is lighter and less folded than the Medium picture is not, on that evidence alone, proof that Small was imported. It is weaker evidence than the Conservancy/Silvera import statements.

What is still open. GB/T 40156-2021 still prints Small and Medium as type-groups of one breed. The Association’s 250 lb floor overlaps Chinese Small adults. Members will see lighter, smoother pigs and ask which table to use. The draft does not add a US Small class. It uses Medium excellence targets and treats feed, age, and bloodline as the first explanation for animals at the low end. If the Association later wants a named Small class, that is a policy choice; the import record as published does not require it.

6. Head and snout

Dispute. “Large head” (Taiwan, Taihu) versus “medium head” (GB/T). “Long snout” is in the national standard and is almost absent from US popular type talk. Selecting for a short, dished, pet-pig head would move away from GB/T clause 4 even if wrinkles and socks were perfect.

7. Ears

Not seriously disputed in kind: all sources want large, soft, pendulous ears. GB/T and Taiwan specify tips level with or beyond the corners of the mouth. AMBA only says “pendulous.” How long is long enough, and whether a shorter ear is a fault, is specified in China and not in AMBA.

8. Back, belly, rump, legs

A straight-backed, tight-underlined, long-legged pig could pass AMBA’s written description and fail GB/T clause 4. A dipped-back, heavy-bellied pig is required in China and is consistent with, but not required by, AMBA.

X-leg is a related gap. Commercial and most British/US breed standards want the front legs plumb from the front. In Chinese lard types, including Taihu/Meishan, a moderate X-set of the front legs is common and is not treated as unsound if the gait is free. Judging Meishans by a Western “straight front” ideal would fault typical Chinese type. Extreme X-set that makes the pig interfere or break down is still a soundness problem, not a type virtue.

9. Teats

Dispute. China: a minimum of eight pairs for identification (GB/T) and for keeping replacements (Suzhou). CDAD-IS is stricter (nine pairs). AMBA states a typical range that starts at the Chinese minimum and runs higher, but does not say a gilt with 14 sound teats is unregisterable. US “16-20+” as a marketing typical is not the same as China’s cull line.

10. Litter size and “hyper-prolific”

Everyone agrees Meishan is highly prolific. The numbers still do not match.

• GB/T production-performance tables were not in the public preview.
• CDAD-IS: primiparous total born 14.88, live 13.67.
• Taiwan LRI: primiparous lower; multiparous average 12+.
• CAAA Taihu: first litter about 12, third and later about 16, outstanding 26, record 42.
• AMBA: by second-third farrowing, 12-18 or more.
• Conservancy: third farrowing typically 14-16, occasionally 20+; USDA-herd record 28.
• Silvera: typical 12-14; farm record 20; US record 28; China 42.
• The Pig Site: 15-16 born; third+ parities 17.0 born, 12.9 weaned.

Dispute. “Typical” in US copy (14-18, 15-16) is higher than Taiwan’s multiparous 12+ and in the same band as Chinese third-parity Taihu/Meishan figures. Record litters (28, 42) are not type requirements. Weaning rate is reported as a Meishan strength (Conservancy, AMBA) but is not a conformation trait.

Puberty “about 90 days” (AMBA, Conservancy) versus CDAD-IS sow first estrus 73-85 days and suitable breeding at 6 months, Suzhou local standard gilts bred at 7 months. Early puberty is not disputed; breeding age in Chinese management standards is later than the puberty figure used in English.

11. One breed, two types, or a Taihu strain

This is a classification dispute that changes which wrinkles and weights are “correct.”

• GB/T 40156-2021: Meishan is a Jianghai-type local breed. Small and Medium are type-groups inside the same standard.
• Chinese Wikipedia / Zhongguo Taihu Zhu (1991) / Zhongguo Meishan Zhu (2014): Meishan is a class-group of Taihu pig. Historically three local forms (chaoban face, camel foot, wooden-fish head) collapsed into Small (fine-foot) and Medium (coarse-foot).
• Livestock Conservancy / Silvera: three sub-types, Large extinct; US = Medium only; in China Small and Medium are managed as separate breeds on conservation farms.
• English web (The Pig Site): “a sub-group of the Taihu pig,” named for “the Chinese prefecture of Meishan” (see naming, below).

If Small and Medium are separate breeds, a low-wrinkle, about 265 lb pig is a Small Meishan, not a poor Medium. If they are one breed, GB/T’s “wrinkles few or many” and “small or medium” are the standard. US writing assumes Medium and then quotes a 250-400 lb window that is heavier than GB/T Small and overlapping Chinese Medium.

The draft standard follows the US import record and is Medium only. See section 5 for the reasons, and for why a lighter or smoother US animal is not by itself treated as a second type.

12. Name and place (not conformation, but it affects which photos people treat as type)

• GB/T 40156: origin Taihu basin of the Yangtze delta; center Taicang and Kunshan (Jiangsu) and Jiading (Shanghai).
• AMBA: “Chinese translation: Virtuous Beauty”; named with the Taihu group “for the lake in that area.” Meishan is a place name (Mei hill / Meishan), not a translation of “virtuous beauty.”
• Taiwan MOA: “native to Meishan County, Jiangsu.” The documented center is Taicang-Kunshan-Jiading, not Sichuan’s Meishan prefecture.
• The Pig Site: “named for the Chinese prefecture of Meishan.” That reading points at Sichuan Meishan, which is not the Taihu breed.

These are naming errors, not trait standards, but they pull in the wrong regional pigs when people search for type photos.

13. Purity rules (what may be registered)

AMBA (Conservancy summary): foundation purity is chain of custody to one of three US research herds; grade “pure on appearance” females only; bloodline percentages and COI tracked.

Chinese local standard (Suzhou/Kunshan): replacements must look like Meishan; cull genetic variants, wrong teat counts, hernias.

Those are different purity theories. Appearance-only females in the US can widen white, gray, and wrinkle ranges relative to Chinese conservation herds that still select to four white feet and eight pairs of teats.

Compact map of the live arguments

Sources used

Primary files in Sources:

• GB/T 40156-2021 梅山猪 (Meishan pig) – GB/T 40156-2021 Meishan pig (public preview through Table 1)
• National Domestic Animal Germplasm Resource Bank (CDAD-IS) — Meishan pig – National Domestic Animal Germplasm Resource Bank
• DB3205/T 101—2018 梅山种猪饲养管理技术规程 – Suzhou DB3205/T 101-2018 selection clauses
• American Meishan Breeders Association — Breed Description, American Meishan Breeders Association — Breed History
• The Livestock Conservancy — Meishan Pig
• Taiwan Council of Agriculture knowledge portal — 梅山豬 (Meishan pig)
• Chinese Wikipedia — 梅山猪 (citing Zhongguo Meishan Zhu 2014 and Zhongguo Taihu Zhu 1991)
• The Pig Site — Meishan
• Small Farmer’s Journal — Rico Silvera, “Meishan Pigs”
• Odd Bird Farm — History & Traits

Additional texts cited above, not copied into Sources:

• Jiading Meishan geographic-indication summary, Baidu Baike Jiading Meishan pig, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%98%89%E5%AE%9A%E6%A2%85%E5%B1%B1%E7%8C%AA/23289705
• China Animal Agriculture Association, “Eight Famous Chinese Pigs,” Taihu pig section, 5 August 2015, https://pig.caaa.cn/html/pig_hykp/pig_pzjs/2015/0805/1697.html
• AMBA member discussion of white markings, 26 December 2021, https://www.facebook.com/groups/americanmeishanbreedersassociation/posts/3365377717082027/
• Blackburn et al. (2014), as cited by AMBA (DNA drift among US research herds)

Still missing as full text, and likely to change some rows: the rest of GB/T 40156-2021 (Medium table, production performance, breeding requirements); the 2010 Shanghai local standard Meishan pig; Zhongguo Xuchin Yichuan Ziyuanzhi (Zhu Zhi) Meishan chapter.