Published at 10:04, Friday, 19 March 2010

Wendy the Cumberland pig was poised to bring her breed back from extinction thanks to DNA wizardry – until science came up against an insurmountable and age-old obstacle.

• Video: Terry Bowes talks about the project

Wendy, the Cumberland pig

The floppy eared white sow, whose existence promised so much, has proved infertile and unable to deliver a new dawn for her kind.

She has left Cumbria to become a pet pig on a farm in Northampton and the man behind her breeding is back to square one.

In 2008, The Cumberland News exclusively revealed the birth of Wendy, said by her owner Terry Bowes to be the first Cumberland pig to be born since the breed became extinct in the 1960s.

He had spent years selectively breeding pigs until Wendy was born with a 99.6 per cent DNA match for the Cumberland.

But despite many encounters between Wendy and the boar, no piglets resulted – and she remains one of a kind.

Mr Bowes said: “We think it will be another four or five years before we have another Wendy and we need several to make the breeding programme viable.

“We should be able to hone in on the right mix of breeding a lot quicker the second time around.”

DNA was taken from an old Cumberland pig hide and each new pairing of pigs at Wetheriggs Animal Rescue and Conservation Centre near Penrith was planned to increase the match.

Pigs at the centre and around 50 on farms around Cumbria are taking part in the breeding programme to recreate the traditional county breed that gave Cumberland sausage its name. The breeds involved include the Gloucester old spot, Welsh pig and Polynesian varieties.

Cumberland pigs produced quite a fatty pork that went out of fashion in the 1950s when farmers switched to leaner breeds. The last Cumberland pig is thought to have died on a farm in Bothel in 1960. Enthusiasts have already successfully recreated the once-extinct Oxford

Sandy & Black breed, which now has its own society.

Mr Bowes says he is determined not to give up on bringing part of the county’s heritage back to life, no matter how long it takes.

If you have information about the Cumberland pig and would like to be involved in the breeding programme, contact Terry Bowes on 01768 889121.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk