The domestic pig is a descendent of the European and Asiatic wild boar (Latin sus scrofa). Domestication came about in many places in Asia and Europe beginning in the 8th millennium BCE [2. 248, 255]. Until the introduction of modern breeding efforts at the end of the 19th century, domestic pigs were 20% to 30% smaller than their wild ancestors, both because of their inferior nutritional situation (modificatory effect) and the diminished reproductive capacity of weaker animals (genetic effect) [9. 475]; [2. 42 f.] (Animal breeding). In the Middle Ages and early modern perio…