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| Conservation status | |
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| Other names |
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| Country of origin | Italy |
| Distribution | Tuscany |
| Standard | ANAS (page 9, in Italian) |
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The Cinta Senese[a] is an Italian breed of domestic pig from the province of Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy.[2] It is particularly associated with the Montagnola Senese and the comuni of Casole d'Elsa, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Gaiole in Chianti, Monteriggioni, Siena and Sovicille, in the area between the upper Merse and the upper Elsa rivers; it was in the past widely distributed throughout Tuscany.
Since 2006 animals raised in Tuscany under certain conditions have had DOP status, and are officially named Suino Cinto Toscano DOP.[3]
History
[edit]The Cinta Senese is a traditional breed of Tuscany, the only remaining Tuscan pig breed. It is believed to have a long history: a belted pig of similar appearance is shown in a fourteenth-century fresco – the Effetti del buon governo in campagna – by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena.[4]
A genealogical herd-book was established in the early 1930s. The population fell drastically after the Second World War, almost to the point of extinction, and the herd-book was discontinued in the 1960s. Following a recovery in numbers, the herd-book was re-opened in 1997,[5][6] and is kept by the Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Suini, the Italian national association of pig breeders. The Cinta Senese is one of the six autochthonous pig breeds recognised by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, the Italian ministry of agriculture and forestry.[7]: 9
The population remains low: at the end of 2007 it was 2867;[5]: 433 the conservation status of the breed was listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as "endangered" in the same year.[1]: 69 At the end of 2012 there were 2543 pigs registered, distributed over 111 farms.[8]
Characteristics
[edit]The Cinta Senese is a slow-growing pig, reaching an average weight of 40 kg at six months, 70 kg at one year and 130–150 kg after two years.[9]: 688 Body weights for mature animals are variously given as 140 kg or 250 kg for sows and either 150 kg or 300 kg for boars.[5]: 433 [2]
The pigs are uniformly black, with a sharply defined white belt over the shoulders and down to the front hooves; the skin is black – either smoky or shiny – in the black areas, and unpigmented in the belt.[9]: 688 Unlike the pig depicted by Lorenzetti, the modern breed has lop ears, falling forward over the eyes;[4] this is variously attributed to inter-breeding with other (now extinct) Tuscan breeds including the Macchiaola and the Maremmana, or with transhumant pigs moving through the Maremma from the Garfagnana, from the Tosco-Emilian Apennines, from the Papal States and from the Kingdom of Naples;[4] or otherwise with Wessex Saddleback pigs imported to Umbria in the 1950s.[9]: 688
Use
[edit]The pigs are reared for their meat, which it is claimed has a fine veining of fat rather than the clear division between fat and lean seen in other pigs. Meat from animals reared in Tuscany under specific conditions has DOP status, and may be marketed as Suino Cinto Toscano DOP.[3] It is used to make a wide variety of salumi, among them capocollo, gotino, lardo, prosciutto, rigatino and salame.[4]
Management is extensive: the pigs are kept either in feral conditions, ranging freely in woodland – of oak, holm-oak, Turkey oak or chestnut – and foraging for greenery, acorns and the like; or they may provided with some simple shelter and with extra feed when needed.[5]: 434
Notes
[edit]- ^ (Italian pronunciation: [/ˈtʃinta seˈneːze; -eːse/])
References
[edit]- ^ a b Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- ^ a b c Breed data sheet: Cinta Senese / Italy (Pig). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed July 2025.
- ^ a b Maria Rosito (2008). Cinta senese, rinascita di una razza (in Italian). Eurocarni (3): 196. Archived 18 September 2023.
- ^ a b c d Cinta Senese: Arca del Gusto (in Italian). Bra, Cuneo: Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus/Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. Archived 26 May 2024.
- ^ a b c d Daniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon (2008). Atlante delle razze autoctone: Bovini, equini, ovicaprini, suini allevati in Italia (in Italian). Milan: Edagricole. ISBN 9788850652594.
- ^ Strutture Zootecniche (Dec. 2009/712/CE - Allegato 2 - Capitolo 2) (in Italian). Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali. Section I (e). Archived 4 May 2014.
- ^ Norme tecniche del Libro Genealogico e del Registro Anagrafico della specie suina: Allegato 1 a D.M. 11255 del 13 June 2013 (in Italian). Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali. Archived 8 November 2011.
- ^ Andrea Cristini, et al. (23 June 2013). Relazione del comitato direttivo alla assemblea generale dei soci (in Italian). Rome: Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Suini. Archived 7 May 2014.
- ^ a b c Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.