Hunt for genetic secret of Sichuan pig who survived amid quake rubble

Is the reason the strong-willed pig managed to survive 36 days under the rubble of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which left nearly 88,000 people and 4 million pigs dead, that it is genetically superior to other pigs?

A mainland tycoon and the country's leading DNA sequencing institute said they would find out by studying the four-year-old pig's DNA and comparing it to average pigs, according to a mainland media report.

Sichuan-based New Hope Group - an animal feed company owned by billionaire Liu Yonghao, who ranked 21st on Forbes' 400 Richest Chinese list last year - would co-operate with BGI, formerly the Beijing Genomics Institute, the Chengdu Economic Daily reported yesterday.

'Zhu Jianqiang [literally, strong-willed pig, the name given by Fan Jianchuan, the curator of a museum in Chengdu opened in the pig's honour] survived in such a harsh environment; what kind of special genes made it adapt to the environment?' BGI researcher Li Wei was quoted as saying. The institute would also analyse the pig's genes to predict what kind of diseases it was likely to contract.

The company, which has given the pig a home since its rescue, said it hoped to preserve the pig's genomic advantage, if any is found, through technological means.

A BGI researcher flew to Chengdu to collect skin samples from the pig on Wednesday. He had to fly back 'to our Shenzhen laboratories within five hours in order to maintain the skin tissue's activity and [the report's integrity],' Liu Huan, another BGI researcher, told the newspaper.