Adaptability of dry chemistry method for blood testing of pigs was examined in this study with comparison with that of the conventional methods. Furthermore, the accuracy of the determinations by the dry chemistry method was studied with simultaneous reproducibility. The results revealed the following findings.
1) The comparison of the determination results by the dry chemistry method with those of the conventional methods proved that the correlation coefficients were significant in all the investigated items with an error probability of 1%. The items which indicated extremely high correlation coefficients over 0.9 were K, GOT, Tp, ALP, CPK and BUN, while the items showing relatively high correlation coefficients between 0.8 and 0.9 were Cre, Glu, T-chol and LDH. The items showing fairly high correlation coefficients between 0.7 and 0.8 were Tri-G, Alb, GPT, Amy and GGT. The items such as T-bit, Hb, Ca, Na and Cl demonstrated fairly low correlation coefficients.
2) The smallest variation coefficient in the simultaneous reproducibility test was 0.59 in Na, while the largest thereof was 7.08% in GGT and T-bill. The average value of all the items examined was 2.71%.
It was conceived from the above findings that the determinations of blood components by the dry chemistry method as adopted in this study would be suitable for clinical examinations of pigs, although there are some items yet to be studied in further depth.

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The accurate estimates of genetic parameters are essential for making decisions of optimum selection of breeding. The authors have recently developed for actual practice a totalsystem for estimation of breeding values (EBV) with a micro-computor, by which records of the individuals of the swine but also those of their relatives can be counted.
This system based on contemporary comparison method makes it easier to calculate the EBV on the days of age (DAY) and on the back fat thickness (BF) at 105kg of body weight, and also on the reproductive performances such as the number of piglets born alive and the litter weight adjusted for 21 days of age. Therefore, this system has been applied to practical uses by breeders.
On the other hand, the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) procedure is widely used for the sire evaluation in dairy and beef cattle due to its accuracy, but this procedure is tedious in its application with microcomputor due to large scale matrix needed for calculation.
The purpose of our present paper is to compare the sire rankings of Duroc breed of swine predicted by the following two procedures, i. e.
1) The application program in our micro-computor system, and
2) BLUP procedure with sire model using large scale computor.
The performance test date on DAY and BF of 4, 852 Duroc pigs sired 45 boars were analyzed.
The results revealed that the percentage of consistency in the top 30% sire rankings obtained by the two methods were in the range from 86% to 93% in both traits, showing the practical usefulness of the simplified method.

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The author carried out comparative analysis of physical and chemical properties of house dusts collected from 4 fattening swine houses in Chiba Prefecture. The comparison was made between these samples and one sample each of feed, feces of pigs and dusts of broiler house.
The results were as summarized below.
(1) The contents of organic substances (84.03-85.62%), nitrogen (4.23-4.69%) and carbon (37.52-42.78%) of house dusts indicated values similar to those of feces of swine, and were rated as between those of the feed for fattening swine and those of the dusts in the broiler house.
The existence of starch in the content was verified by the iodine test of the house dusts, which was rated as ++ comparable to that of feces of swine, but was less than that of the feed of +++. A larger amount of iodine tincture was needed for the iodine reaction of house dusts than that needed for the feed or the feces of swine. The pH of the house dusts was found to be slightly alkaline, unlike that of the feed which was acidic.
(2) The bulk density of house dusts of swine houses was 0.404-0.432 when sparsely filled, 0.564-0.590 when densely filled, and 0.498-0.532 when measured by Yamanaka's apparatus for measuring bulk density. These results were intermediate between that of the feed and that of the house dusts from broiler house. The angles of repose were estimated as 41.1-44.9°, which were lower than those of feed and those of broiler house.
(3) The ratio of dusts held on a tray of electronic balance and the time required for reaching its end point were measured with the behaviors of dusts. The former was 0.743-0.853 and the latter was 25.3-36.0 seconds. These values also were intermediate between those of feed and those of dusts of broiler house.
(4) The wind velocity for moving the dusts was classified into five stages of the first particle movement, the second particle movement, top particle movement, temporary stability and the movement of its major part.
While there were no appreciable variations among the samples of the house dusts in terms of the wind velocity inducing the first particle movement, but as the wind velocity was gradually intensified, the variations among them became bigger in terms of the behaviors of the dusts. The dusts of swine houses could be moved by higher wind velocity than that for the dusts of broiler house, but by lower wind velocity than that for the feed.
From the above-mentioned results, it could be conceived that the house dusts in fattening swine houses were mainly derived from the feces of swine.

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The genetic variations of blood groups and biochemical polymorphisms in CLAWN miniature pigs were investigated in order to clarify the genetic similarities among Göttingen and Ohmini miniature strains from which this strain was originated. The blood samples were collected from twenty-five animals (13 males and 12 females) of this strain which was maintained in Kagoshima University. Blood types investigated comprised eight blood groups (A, E, F, G, H, K, L and O), five serum proteins (Tf, Pa, Hp, Cp and Am), five red cell enzymes (PHI, 6PGD, PGM, ADA and EsD) and two serum allotypes (PSA-I and PSA-II), 20 loci in total.
The results were as follows.
1) CLAWN strain showed polymorphic variations at A, E, F, H, L, PSA-I, Tf and Hp loci, while the other twelve loci were found monomorphic. From the comparison of the gene frequencies in CLAWN strain with those in Göttingen and Ohmini strains, it was presumed that they were much influenced by the genes in blood types of Göttingen and Ohmini strains from which CLAWN was derived. However, the gene frequencies at Hp and Tf loci specifically differed from those in Göttingen and Ohmini, and Tf and PSA-I loci were influenced by LW crossbred (Landrace × Large White) which was crossed once during production of this miniature strain.
2) The genetic variability of CLAWN strain revealed by gene homogenecity index (H. I.), expected proportion of heterozygosity per individual (H), proportion of polymorphic loci (P poly) and effective number of alleles per locus (Ne) was lower than that of any of the other three miniature strains (Göttingen, Ohmini and Pitman-Moore). This strain showed the second lowest variability among the thirteen pig populations investigated to date (CLAWN, Jinhua, Meishan, Taoyuan, Short-ear, Ohmini, Göttingen, Pitman-Moore, Landrace, Large White, Hampshire, Duroc and Hypor).
3) Using the gene frequencies at the 20 loci, the genetic distance from each other was calculated among thirteen pig populations on the basis of the two formulae of Rogers and Nei, and the dendrogram showing genetic similarities among them was prepared. It was clarified from the dendrogram that CLAWN strain belonged to Asian pig group which is completely different from Euro-American group, and was in a close distance to Göttingen strain.

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