How To Register Your Litter With AKKPS
1. Make sure that you are a member of AKKPS. You can go to www.americankunekunepigsociety.org to purchase an annual membership. Be sure to choose a fun prefix for your farm (ours is K5 Farm………..). The prefix will go at the beginning of the name of every piglet that you breed and register.
2. Make sure that both parents are registered with AKKPS. If one/both is registered with IKHR only, you will have to dual register them before you can do anything else with your litter. Go to the AKKPS Members Area and click the “Dual Registration” link, then follow the instructions.
3. Go to the AKKPS Members Area and click the “Litter Notification” link. You will need the AKKPS numbers and registered names of both parents. You will list how many males/females and the litter’s date of birth. Finally, you will indicate the colors of each piglet and how many wattles that they have. If you have a piglet that has a belt (tapeka traited) or is high white (more than 80% white) check the box next to the color. Your litter notification will come to your email and will have the herd book numbers for each piglet and the animal name for each piglet (YOU USE THIS WHEN YOU SUBMIT SAMPLES TO THE LAB).
4. Permanently identify each piglet that you are going to register (we only register the best that we think will be quality breeding/show animals). You can either use a microchip or an ear tag. If you choose to microchip: you can get microchips yourself on Amazon or you can take your piglets to the vet and have them do it. Insert the microchips into the fleshy area behind one of their ears. If you choose to ear tag: put your tag in the center of the right ear, avoiding major blood vessels. We use 840 USDA tags from Valley Vet. Make sure to document the microchip/ear tag numbers that you put in/on each specific animal!
5. Your next step is to pull DNA samples from each piglet that you are going to register. I usually wait to do this until 7-8 weeks. I only submit DNA on the nicest piglets that I think will be quality breeding or show animals because it costs around $35/animal. To pull DNA, I use needle nose pliers so that I can get a good hold on some hairs. You have to have the bulb of skin attached to the hair for the sample. I put each sample in its own envelope and label the envelope with the buyer’s name, the piglet’s animal name from the litter notification, the microchip/ear tag number, and a brief description of the animal (color/sex). It is very easy to mix them up if you don’t label the samples clearly! Once you have your samples, go to: https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/myvgl/login.html to do the lab paperwork. There are some really great help guides on the AKKPS website to help you with all of this process found here: https://americankunekunepigsociety.org/uc-davis-parentage-dna-testing/. Print out the papers that the lab gives you and send in your samples! Results will come to your email in 2-8 weeks, although it can take longer.
6. Once you have your verified DNA results, you can register your piglets! Go to the AKKPS Members Area and click the “Full Registration” link. You will need the information on your litter notification and on your DNA results for each piglet, as well as the information for the buyer of the piglet. The buyer does not need to be an AKKPS member. Registration certificates come to the buyer’s email, usually within one day.
