ABSTRACT
The bones and musculature of the pig are massive (Figure 1.34 and Figure 1.35), which is consistent with the use of pork as a primary food source for humans. The cortex of the bones also tends to be thick compared to other animals, which provides the strength necessary to support an animal that tends to be heavy and have a small stature. Diseases of the joints occur frequently, probably because of the rapid weight gain on an immature skeleton in young animals (Sack, 1982). Swine have seldom been used as models for musculoskeletal or orthopedic experiments because of the conformation of the muscles and skeletal axis. However, the proportion and distribution of muscles and bones that support and provide locomotion for the body are similar between farm and miniature pigs, and they have been proposed as a model of growth of the system because of their rapid weight gain (Bobilya et al., 1991; Davies and Henning, 1986). They have also been used as models of bone healing and epiphyseal plate growth (Ahn et al., 1997; Alitalo, 1979; Allan et al., 1990; Peltonen et al., 1984), and of congenital hip dislocation (Salter, 1968) and experimentally produced scoliosis (MacEwen, 1973). Recently there has been an increased interest in the model for the evaluation of grafting techniques (Costa et al., 2003; Doll et al., 2001; Donovan et al., 1993; Ouhayoun et al., 1992; Schliephake and Langner, 1997), bone implants (Buser et al., 1991; Illi and Feldman, 1998), lumbar fusion (Li et al., 2004; Zou et al., 2004), osteonecrosis (Swiontkowski et al., 1993), osteochondral defects (Gotterbarm et al., 2006; Peretti et al., 2006; Vasura et al., 2006), and osteoporosis (Boyce et al., 1995). The temporomandibular joint (Chapter 10, Figure 10.8 and Figure 10.10) of swine has also been determined to be more similar to humans than many other species in a comparative macroscopic study (Bermejo et al., 1993).
