Following an International Forum on Animal Biotechnology, the Chinese Academy of Engineering has announced that the country will launch the international pig model project (PMP, http://www.pigmodel.org). Organized by the Ministry of Science 
and Technology and China Agricultural University, it aims to produce about 25,000 knockout pig lines covering the whole genome, using CRISPR/Cas9 and other technologies. The goal is to establish the model pig in agriculture, biology, medical and pharmaceutical research through phenotype analysis on a large scale and lay the foundation for a dominant position of the pig as a model animals. China is the largest pig breeding and consuming country in the world, with a head count of 1.2 billion pigs in 2016. Hog production and consumption account for about half of the world. At the same time, China is also the country with the richest pig germplasm and pig breeding resources in the world. One quarter of the population are miniature pig breeds such as Tibet, Wuzhishan and Guizhou miniature pigs. Major pig-related research topics in China are gene editing technologies, pig functional genomics, transgenic pigs for xenotransplantation, and pigs as disease models. China Agricultural University takes the lead in constructing two Pig phenotype and genetic research facilities” in Danzhou, Hebei Province, and Kunming, Yunnan Province, with a total investment of 1.12 billion yuan. Construction period is about 5 years.”

China Bio news release, November 16, 2017