An understanding of the genetic control of porcine female reproductiveperformance would offer the opportunity to utilize natural variation and improveselective breeding programs through marker-assisted selection. The ChineseMeishan is one of the most prolific pig breeds known, farrowing three to fivemore viable piglets per litter than the European Large White breed. Thisdifference in prolificacy is attributed to the Meishan's superior prenatalsurvival levels. The present study utilized a three-generation cross in whichthe founder grandparental animals were purebred Meishan and Large White pigs ina scan for quantitative trait loci (QTL) on porcine chromosome 8 (SSC8)associated with reproductive performance. Reproductive traits, including numberof corpora lutea (ovulation rate), teat number, litter size, and prenatalsurvival, were recorded for as many as 220 F2 females. Putative QTL for therelated traits of litter size and prenatal survival were identified at thedistal end of the long arm of SSC8. A physiological candidate gene, SPP1, wasfound to lie within the 95% confidence interval of these QTL. A suggestive QTLfor teat number was revealed on the short arm of SSC8. The present studydemonstrates, to our knowledge, the first independent confirmation of QTL forfecundity on SSC8, and these QTL regions provide a crucial starting point in thesearch for the causal genetic variants.