[4] All the Taihu strains have a high rate of reproduction with litter sizes ranging up to twenty, but averaging fourteen live piglets.

This characteristic, as well as their resistance to disease, has resulted in interest in the pigs for research into breeding and genetic engineering.

Taihu are kept well-fed on a vegetable diet with large amounts of roughage, which sometimes leaves them short of calcium for bone development.

[1] The Erhualian strain is mainly found in the districts of Changzhou and Wuxi cities in Jiangsu Province.

[5] Interest has grown in Western countries in the possibility of using this pig in the female line of a breeding program with the hope that they can improve the taste, disease resistance and litter size while retaining the fast growth of Western breeds, possibly using genetic engineering techniques.