Abstract: Genetic variation of an 875 bp insertion mutation located at intron 3 of epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene was analyzed by two-step PCR amplification in 13 Chinese and Western pig breeds having different reproduction ability, and genetic variation of this model with sow reproduction traits was also performed in 180 F2 sows from a White Duroc × Erhualian resource population. The results showed that the allele of this insertion mutation presented skew distribution in different types of Chinese indigenous pig breeds and Western commercial pig breeds. This mutation did not show any significant association with total number born，number born alive and number alive at weaning in this population，and the differences of mean value among genotypes also did not achieve significant level (P>0.05). Compared with individuals BB，individuals AA had 1.74 and 0.46 more number born alive and number alive at weaning，however there were only a few number of BB animals. Although the additive and dominant value of number born alive achieved 0.87 and 1.24，it did not achieve the significant level. So it was necessary to carry out SNP searching in the whole gene sequence and analyze the association with porcine reproduction traits in a large sample size.

Key words: pig; epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene; litter traits