The high number of men shows that in Côte d'Ivoire this economic activity remains reserved to them unlike other countries where pig gathering is devoted to women and children. This had already been pointed out by Tra [7] in the Abidjan region, in Cameroon and in Central African Republic [8]. In these last countries, livestock is exclusively raised by men while women tend to raise poultry [9]. On the opposite side, in the groundnut basin, this activity seems to be dominated by women valuing grains [8]. In these regions, women preparing traditional beers and alcohol sell the seeds to the farmers against piglets. This allows them to rear small domestic livestock, which are fill with seeds [10].
The larger number of herds at Agboville is first related to its larger population with 100 villages spread over 3,850 km2. In this area, animals are wandered and feed on household dumps. In Dabou, the low number of pigs can be related to different eating habits, as the Adioukrou people are lagoon people practicing mainly fishing and eating fishes. To date this area is also widely open to the Abidjan megapole and breeding activities decrease drastically in parallel with the increase of commercial ones. Similarly, in the Aboisso area, the low number of pigs recorded could be related to a predominant agricultural activity (cocoa, coffee, oil palm and rubber crops) of the villagers, sustained by a ferritic type of soil with good water retention, heavy vegetation, and dense hydromorphic forests [11]. In this region, pig farming would be traditionally prohibited because of the destruction of crops and of the spread of garbage by these animals. In the same line, free range farming is now limited by the extension of cultivated and of urban areas [12]. Accordingly, when the number of breeders decreased in villages, the number of animals increased. However, data obtained during this study are far from the number of farmers and livestock registered by the Association of Pork Producers of Ivory Coast [13]. In this report, only 58 breeders were registered in the Dabou district for 4,571 pigs (an average of 79 animals / breeder). Despite the time elapsed since this report, this difference could be explained by the design of our study focusing on traditional farms. These traditional breeding are mostly conducted on a rambling path, which does not allow accurate census of breeders and animals. In the same line, since May 1996, the swine population undergoes regular African Swine Fever epidemics (ASF) which impact more deeply the production of "modern" pigs (64% of decline) than of traditional pigs (32%) [14]. Since then, the Ivorian pork sector has been subject to fierce competition from imported pork and other pig products [13].
In this study, the increase in livestock size with the size of the farmer's household would mean that the large number of people in the household would constitute the labour force.
The female breeders were more likely than males to practice permanent wandering, because they are more involved in household activities and food crops. They have no more time for enclosure breeding.
The high proportion of the young pigs is an indicator of good prolificacy of sows, but still lower than in neighboring countries such as Senegal (range of 7.17) [15] or Cameroon (range of 12.4) [8]. The proportion of boars remains low in the three areas studied with 15%, 13% and 8.7% of the herd. This could be due to a quick reform of the males, sold and slaughtered during the holidays and festivities. This has also been observed in Senegal [16], Central Africa [17] and Benin [18]. For these authors, the low proportion of males would be an indicator of the traditional rearing pattern of local pigs. No significant difference is observed for the proportion of females according to the areas (male/female ratio 1/2 in Dabou, 1/4 in Aboisso and 1/3 in Agboville), whereas it increases around Abidjan with a male/female ratio at 1/8 [13] and even to 1/10 [7]. This is characteristic of an uncontrolled reproduction associated with wandering. However, this high number of males per female could reduce consanguinity.
The high number of the local breed observed in this study is in accordance with data from Cameroon where local breed accounted for 95% of the population [8], or from Madagascar [19]. Local breeds cover a wide variety of lineages with heterogeneous performances. These more rustic animals are more adaptable to difficult food and climatic conditions [7], but they grow slowly and hardly reach 50 kg for adults. Their average daily gain (ADG) is greater than 400 g/day with a consumption index equal to 4 for weights between 20 and 60 kg [20]. From one country to another, these local breeds show large variations in the age of first farrowing, ranging from 16.5 months in Senegal [21] to only 11.3 months in the Central African Republic [17]. Local breeds are diverse depending on the country: the Black Spotted Spotted Black and the Black Criollo with long bristles in Latin America, the Bakosi in Cameroon, and the Korhogo in Ivory Coast, the Ghanaian Ashanti in Ghana, and the Windsnyer on the back sharp and Kolbrock in South Africa [7]. They have a head with a short forehead, an elongated snout and small ears carried horizontally or slightly erect. A narrow body is carried by fairly long limbs with a tourniquet size ranging from 40 to 60 centimeters. The skin is black, sometimes magpie, rarely white with a coat of silk more or less long and coarse [22].
Overall, the proportion of mixed breeds is higher in Dabou (54, 1%) than other areas. It is the same proportion observed in Bangui (52%) [8], due to the system of stray farms where the projections are not controlled. Mixed-breed animals originated mostly from crossbreeds of local breeds and imported European and North American ones (Large White, Landrace, Duroc, Pietrain, Hampshire) or between local breeds and breeds of these crosses [23]. These animals are more vigorous and more resistant than those of the parental exotic breed, but with better performance than local breeds [17]. According to the Interprofessional Fund for Agricultural Research (FIRCA), in Ivorian flocks, pigs with improved zootechnical performances can be also found. These performances are 100.75 kg of live weight at 7 months, with an average daily gain (GMQ) of 806.2 g / day for Large White, and 108.9 kg of live weight (GMQ) with a gain of (GMQ) of 821.66 g / day for the Landrace.
The predominant pens farms observed in Dabou belong to employees of industrial palm and rubber cooperatives. These cooperatives are at the origin of rearing in pens, as it is supposed to increase productivity, reduce damage caused by stray animals, reduce the spread of diseases, and avoid conflicts between farmers causing administrative fines [25]. In Ivory Coast, for farms in confinement, the breeding is controlled by the breeder. Boars used for this purpose are either borrowed from other farms or purchased [25]. The origin of boars is rarely known including multiple crosses which increases the risk for consanguinity [26]. Unlike Dabou, the other localities practice the permanent system. In this system, projections are uncontrolled, and it is observed early increasing consanguinity [26]. The farrowing is done in the nature, next to the compound, or rarely in the enclosure. This system is the cheapest and the easiest for the farmers but it exposes animals to massive infestations and various pathologies leading to high mortality, slow growth and low productivity [22].
The result of seroprevalence of pig cysticercosis shows a highest prevalence observed in Aboisso with anibodies against cysticercosis in ELISA. This rate is quite high according to Druet [27] who collected data in sub-Saharian countries with prevalence ranging from 0, 23 and 24, 0%. Using the same technic, a similar rate of 38% was reported by Zoli [28] in the Ménoua region and by Nguekam [29] (21, 78%). However, a lack of specificity was describe for ELSIA due to cross reactivity with other helminthes.
The final seroprevalence obtained with Western Blot shows a significant difference in the localities. This difference of seropositivity was recently related to cross-reactivity with other Taeniidae as Taenia hydatigena [30]. Large variation of cysticercosis seroprevalence can be observed from one village to another (Fig. 1). However, this prevalence is higher than that reported by Geerts [3] in slaughterhouses in Abidjan by visual inspections of the carcasses. Visual inspection is much less sensitive than serology and highly dependent on technical competence of the user [32].