The data of three protein polymorphisms were used to investigate the genetic relationships among the Landrace, Large White and Duroc swine breeds reared in Brazil, 12 other populations of these same breeds from various countries and a population of Belgium Landrace. The dendrogram, constructed from matrix of genetic distance coefficients, disclosed three large groups clustered by breed. Among them, the Landrace and the Large White showed in average closer resemblance (D= 0.203) than between them and Duroc (D= 0.241). It the three breeds, the smallest genetic distances were found between Brazilian and Cuban pig populations (Landrace: D = 0.060; Large White: D = 0.052; Duroc: D = 0.065), although there were not reports of pig exchanges between these two countries.
swine; protein polymorphisms; genetic relationships
