Leg Weakness and Osteochondrosis in Swine: A Review

Nakano, T.; Brennan, John J.; Aherne, F. X.

doi:10.4141/cjas87-094

Cited by 76 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…OCD is a noninfectious disease affecting the joint cartilage as well as the epiphyseal plates, characterized by a disturbance of the transformation of cartilage into bone. The frequency of the lesions is greatest in the elbow (distal humerus and proximal ulna) and knee (distal femur) joints (for review see: Nakano et al, 1987). When lesions are severe, they cause lameness, pain and may lead to insufficient feed intake and unnecessary culling of animals (for reviews see: Nakano et al, 1987;Jensen and Toft, 2009).…”

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The frequency of the lesions is greatest in the elbow (distal humerus and proximal ulna) and knee (distal femur) joints (for review see: Nakano et al, 1987). When lesions are severe, they cause lameness, pain and may lead to insufficient feed intake and unnecessary culling of animals (for reviews see: Nakano et al, 1987;Jensen and Toft, 2009). First signs of OCD can be seen in piglets already at 2 weeks of age and are commonly observed by 2 months of age .…”

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…OCD is a multifactorial disorder, but intrinsic features of the pigs seem to play a very important role (reviewed by Nakano et al, 1987;Ytrehus et al, 2007;Jensen and Toft, 2009). There is a clear genetic component as shown by differences between breeds and offspring of different sires as well as by a heritability ranging between 0.1 and 0.5 according to studies and more importantly to the site of the disturbance (Stern et al, 1995;Jorgensen and Andersen, 2000;Kadarmideen et al, 2004;Ytrehus et al, 2004a;Jorgensen and Nielsen, 2005;Luther et al, 2007).…”

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clinical examination of the joints can also be realized at the slaughterhouse. Treatment of live animals by pharmacological means or by changes in management Prunier, Heinonen and Quesnel practices or in housing conditions is difficult (Nakano et al, 1987;Oomah, 2008). However, pain can be alleviated with anti-inflammatory drugs, and pigs can recover if the lesions are not severe.…”

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In severe cases, treatment is often ineffective and the best solution is euthanasia. In order to prevent the occurrence and reduce the severity of OCD, various measures based on the housing and management of the animals (more space per animal, solid non-abrasive and non-slippery floor, restricted feeding and no trauma) have been identified but none of them seems to be very efficient (for reviews see: Nakano et al, 1987;Ytrehus et al, 2007;Jensen and Toft, 2009). Among them, avoiding trauma seems to be more important.…”

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High physiological demands in intensively raised pigs: impact on health and welfare

Prunier

Heinonen

Quesnel

2010

Animal

105

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Genetic selection and better control of the environment of the pigs have resulted in increased production levels concerning both reproduction and growth. Such high performances imply high physiological demands that may deteriorate health and welfare. The aims of this paper are to review the physiological challenges that pigs are facing, to identify possible consequences on health and welfare, to propose ways of detecting and correcting problems whenever possible. At weaning, piglets are submitted to abrupt changes in food supply, housing and social environment. Behavioural changes and efficient adaptations of the digestive tract are critical for their health and welfare. Physiological demands to support these adaptations and risks of failure are inversely related to the age of the pigs. During fattening, modern pigs have high daily weight gain especially of lean tissue as well as elevated feed conversion rate. These high growth performances are suspected to favour stress and disease susceptibility, undesirable behaviours as well as leg weakness, but further experimental data are necessary to validate these effects and find their origin. In reproductive females, high prolificacy generates elevated foetal demands for nutrients and space that are not fully met as shown by an increased number of light piglets having difficulties to adapt successfully to the neonatal life. During lactation, sows with high milk production have high nutrient requirements leading to intense catabolism that may affect their health, welfare and future reproductive abilities.

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Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges At Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

High physiological demands in intensively raised pigs: impact on health and welfare

Prunier

Heinonen

Quesnel

2010

Animal

105

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KRT8, FAF1 and PTH1R gene polymorphisms are associated with leg weakness traits in pigs

et al. 2012

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The liability to lesions of dysfunctions of bone and joints in pigs, summarized as leg weakness and mostly expressed as osteochondrosis, is an animal welfare and economic issue in pig production. The objective of this study was to identify polymorphisms in the functional and positional candidate genes keratin 8 (KRT8), Fas-associated factor 1 (FAF1) and parathyroid hormone type I receptor (PTH1R) and to evaluate their association with leg weakness traits. Therefore, osteochondrosis lesions were scored in animals of a Duroc × Pietrain F2 population (DuPi; n = 310) and commercial herds of the breed Large White (n = 298). In addition, bone mineralization traits were observed in DuPi population. SNPs were identified in genes KRT8 (g.8,039G > A), FAF1 (g.380,914T > C) and PTH1R (c.1,672C > T). KRT8 showed significant association with bone mineral density and content (P ≤ 0.05). FAF1 was association with OC lesions score of all joints inspected (P ≤ 0.05). PTH1R showed significant dominance effects on OC lesion scores of the distal femur articular cartilage (P = 0.01) and epiphysis of the distal ulna (P = 0.05) as well as sums of scores of all joints (OCsum, P = 0.04) and assignment to groups of either severely or gently affected animals (OCcat, P = 0.01). This study reveals clear genetic-statistical evidence for a link of KRT8, FAF1 and PTH1R with some of leg weakness related traits in pigs.

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Effect of different energy and protein levels on leg weakness and osteochondrosis in pigs

Jørgensen

1995

Livestock Production Science

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Leg Weakness and Osteochondrosis in Swine: A Review

Abstract: It is possible that pathogenesis of or susccotibility to joint abnormality differs among animals studied, even in the same experiment, resulting in a failure to observe a correIation between a certain factor and the occurrence of leg abnormalities. The last part

Cited by 76 publications

References 67 publications

High physiological demands in intensively raised pigs: impact on health and welfare

High physiological demands in intensively raised pigs: impact on health and welfare

KRT8, FAF1 and PTH1R gene polymorphisms are associated with leg weakness traits in pigs

Effect of different energy and protein levels on leg weakness and osteochondrosis in pigs

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