Hernias in pigs - veterinary and breeding problem

The occurrence of hernias in pigs is a serious breeding and veterinary problem. Hernia is a condition in which internal organs (most often intestines), protrude through an opening in the layers of muscle and connective tissue of the abdominal wall. There are two major types of hernia - umbilical and inguinal. This pathology is a serious problem in pig production, leading to economic loss through the cost of surgical intervention, increased mortality rate, and reduced carcass value. The overall incidence of hernias in a normal swine population is low but may increase due to matings to a boar that transmits inguinal hernias. The heritability of this trait oscillates around 0.3. Current knowledge of hernias in pigs is scarce, and mostly based on genome-wide association studies. In this review, we indicate the recent studies concerning the genetic markers association analysis in terms of heritability of hernias in pigs. Moreover, the new approach focused on differently expressed genes in swine hernias etiology is here discussed