ABSTRACT
Ossabaw swine were deposited on Ossabaw Island, GA, in the 1500s by Spanish explorers (Mayer and Brisbin, 1991) and, since then, the ocean has remained an impenetrable barrier to emigration of Ossabaw pigs to the mainland. Natural models of disease that arise from adaptation of animals to unique selection pressures can give insights into similar complex, multifactorial diseases in humans. Ossabaw miniature swine may recapitulate the natural pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes because of their “thrifty genotype” that enabled survival in the feast and famine ecology of Ossabaw Island. The thrifty genotype hypothesis is that in the hunter-gatherer stages of human development the ability to store excess fat enabled survival during periods of famine (Neel, 1962).
