Gender related joint problems in finisher pigs

Abstract

Background: This research was started because Dutch food safety employees had the impression that more overfilled joints in pigs were observed since the trend of slaughtering more boars instead of castrates. Therefore the aim of the research became: Determine if there are more affected boars compared to castrated boars with joint problems. However due the present Dutch situation, the research question had to be altered because not enough castrated boars were slaughtered. Therefore the research was aimed to distinguish if there was difference in affected joints between boars and gilts. Furthermore this research was organized in order to evaluate what could be the underlying reason for the joint problems. Therefore also pathology evaluations were performed on random selected affected joints. This part of the research has to be considered as a good pilot for future research. Strong suspicions for osteochondrosis are present after the examinations, but no significant conclusion can be made. A lack of enough data made it impossible to do proper statistics. Also in order to confirm the suspicion which came up during the research, further microscopically research should have been done. This trial if interpenetrated as a pilot, can give a good advice what sort of research should be performed in the future to determine the underlying reason of overfilled joints in pigs.