Authors:

Bea Olivia Cabot

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About Paper:

Swine litter size has been emphasized over piglet quality to improve productivity of sows. Greater numbers of pig fetuses in the uterus leads to insufficient surface area for nutrient transfer, causing an increase in piglets born with Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). Since pigs born with IUGR often die prematurely and surviving piglets develop poorly, identifying IUGR piglets in early life is crucial. IUGR pigs have typically been identified using brain-to-liver weight ratio, resulting in a lack of studies regarding the long-term effects of IUGR. Our objective is to validate selected parameters with images of fetuses, in order to develop non-invasive methods of assessing IUGR. A collection of 335 fetal images captured in left and right lateral recumbency was used. Images were from four distinct time points between mid to late gestation (55, 66, 76 and 86 days). A semi-automated image analysis program was used to evaluate correlation between paired images and the growth curve using 9 specific parameters including crown-rump length (CRL), linear (length between endpoints) and curved (length along curve) skull length, and skull area. As expected, the absolute value of all metrics increased with gestational age. The coefficient of variance (CV) for CRL, girth, linear and curved skull length were all less than 2.5%, while skull area exceeded 8%. Our results suggest skull linear and curved length as highly repeatable measures of cranial shape. To develop non-invasive methods for identifying IUGR, ongoing work will evaluate the relationship between these measures and standard identification methods of IUGR. Keywords: [no keywords provided]

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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Co-authors:

Bea Olivia Cabot