Congenital Limb Deformities in a Neonatal Crossbred Pig

Abstract

Purpose. To describe the pathology and imaging findings in two neonatal piglets with congenital limb deformities. Methods. The litter from a second parity crossbred sow presented with four mummified fetuses, three stillborn piglets, and two live piglets with notable limb deformities that were unable to effectively ambulate. The piglets were euthanized and submitted for gross and histological evaluation. Results. Both pigs had bilateral secondary cleft palates, with hypoplasia of the nasal turbinates, and external rotation of the forelimbs. One pig displayed bilateral cryptorchidism, markedly thin and shortened hindlimbs, and syndactyly of both hind feet. Radiographs and gross dissection confirmed the presence of single ossified proximal to distal phalanges of both feet, bilaterally shortened tibias with fibular aplasia, and delayed ossification of tarsal as well as carpal bones. Conclusions. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first reported case of hindlimb meromelia with syndactyly in a pig.

Feet and legs malformation in Nellore cattle: genetic analysis and prioritization of GWAS results

“…Animals affected by feet and legs malformations cannot perform their productive and reproductive functions satisfactorily, resulting in significant economic losses. The term “limb deformities” usually refers to defects in the legs and feet caused by the most varied etiological agents in different species of production animals ( Rahe et al, 2022 ; Schwertz et al, 2023 ). Here we adopted the term feet and legs malformation (FLM) as a binary functional trait (having or not having defect) previously reported in the literature ( Vargas et al, 2017 ; 2018 ), with a heritability of 0.18 (SE = 0.04) and an incidence of approximately 5% in Nellore cattle ( Vargas et al, 2017 ).…”