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title: "7.4.2 Color genes in pigs (2024)"
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In pigs the extension, agouti, roan and dilution gene determine the base color. In addition a lot of genes are known, as in ruminants, that give cause to different color patterns. For more detailed information see the source for the text below: L. Fontanesi, 2022: Invited review: Genetics and genomics of pigmentation variability in pigs: a review. Livestock Science 265. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2022.105079](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2022.105079) 

The main types are the following:

1. **Wild color** observed in wild boars and Mangalitza breed. The piglets have longitudinal stripes that disappear later in life. Adult animals have hairs of dark color with different intensities.
2. **Uniform black**, observed in the English Large Black breed, the Italian Apulo Calabrese and Sicilian Black breeds, the French Gascon breed and the Chinese Fengjing, Jiaxing Black and Neijiang breeds.
3. **Uniform red**, exemplified by Duroc and Tamworth breeds, the Mangalitza red variety and the Spanish Iberian red varieties.
4. **Black spotting**, where black spots of have variable size and shape are present on different backgrounds exemplified by the Pietrain and the Gloucester Old Spot breeds.
5. **Uniform black** with six white points on the tail, snout, and feet exemplified by Berkshire and Poland China breeds or uniform black with only four white points in the feet as in Meishan pigs.
6. **Belt**, determined by a white belt of variable width and shape centered on the shoulder on black background (as in Hampshire, Essex, British Saddleback, Wessex, Basque, Limousine, Angeln Saddleback and Cinta Senese breeds) or red background (as in Bavarian Landschwein).
7. **Two-end-black**, where animals have black head and hip on a white background, which resembles a modification and enlargement of the belted pattern, as observed in a few Chinese breeds (Bamaxiang, Dongshan, Ganxi, Luchuan, Jinhua, Tongcheng and Shaziling).
8. **White**, with a shiny white color with a white skin as in many breeds of European origin (like Large White/Yorkshire, Middle White, Chester White, Lacombe, Blanc de l’Ouest and the Landraces) and a dirty white on a pigmented skin (as in Mangalitza).
9. **Roan**, that is derived by a mixture of black and white hairs, as observed in several crossbreds or local populations. A dominant allele at the roan locus is responsible for the complete white pigs we have at the moment in many commercial pig breeding programs.

For further reading see e.g. The genetics of the pig, 2011. Editors: M.F. Rothschild and A. Ruvinsky.