HERNIA IN PIGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 335, 21 April 1928, Page 25

HERNIA IN PIGS

INHERITED CHARACTERISTIC A study of hernia in pigs has been made at Wineonsin Agricultural Experimental Station, and the conclusion is that rupture is an inherited characteristic. In selecting pigs for hernia, the experimentalists obtained 7.49 p-v cent, of cases where the male pigs were ruptured in the original herd, 14.2 S per cent, in the first generation, 42.0 per cent, in the second, while the third generation had 43.18 per cent, of the males suffering from this affliction. In tabulating the chief practical con-/ siderations which are outcome of his study, the author makes the followingrecommendation: Never use for breed ing purposes a boar which is, or ever has been, afflicted with internal hernia. This includes animals in which be hernia has disappeared naturally, as well as those in which it has been reduced by operation. Whether hernia would appear among the immediate offspring of any such boar would depend upon the hereditary makeup of the females with which he was mated. In nv case, all of his offspring would carry some of the factors responsible inguinal hernia. This would make it very probable that hernia would reappear in later generations, wherever individuals of certain genotypes, even though themselves normal, happened to be mated together. Discard any normal boar which has sired one or more herniated pigs. Such a boar will transmit factors for hernia to more than one-half of his offspring, and hence would tend to carry it on to the herd, even though the sows to which he is mated should be entirely free from the taint. Do not select breeding stock from sows which have produced one or more inguinally herniated pigs. Do not retain for breeding purposes litter mates to inguinally hernited boars, especially the males. Some of these wilt probably be free from the hernia factors, but it would require extensive breeding tests to determine which they are. The elimination of all the progeny of boars which have been known to sire inguinally herniated pigs would also be advisable. Probably in many cases this would not be practicable. 1