A team led by researchers at Newcastle University in the UK has begun a project to identify biological and behavioural markers that can be used to detect genetic pre-disposition to degenerative joint disease that causes pain and lameness in pigs.
Lameness is a serious animal welfare and economic problem in commercial pig farming which has been found to affect up to 20% of pigs, an estimated 230,000 animals annually in the UK.
The project, funded by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), draws together a multi-disciplinary team in which researchers in human osteoarthritis from Arthritis Research UK’s Centre for Osteoarthritis Pathogenesis (the Kennedy Institute at University of Oxford) and for Pain (University of Nottingham) will work alongside animal scientists from the SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College) and Newcastle University.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
