Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (7): 2667-2682.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.07.001

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Breeding Methods and Application Progress of Medical Miniature Pigs

LIAN Yuju1, ZHANG Zhiyuan2, LIAO Xiaobo2, WEI Hongjiang3, YIN Yulong1*, LIU Mei1*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    2. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Second Xiang-ya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, China;
    3. Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
  • Received:2023-01-12 Online:2023-07-23 Published:2023-07-21

Abstract: Model animals are widely used in human diseases research. With the development of research on this field, classical model animals, such as rodents, dogs, monkeys, can not meet the requirements for human medical research, then miniature pigs have gradually been recognized as an effective supplement to medical model animals. This review introduces the basic biological characteristics of miniature pigs, including anatomical and physiological characteristics, and discusses the advantages of them as medical model animals. Moreover, the main characteristics, origins, breeding methods, and application progress of 18 different breeds of miniature pigs, both in domestic and abroad, are introduced. In addition, this paper also reviews the current research and application situation of miniature pigs as model animals in the fields such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolism, xenotransplantation, and so on. This review is expected to provide reference for the conservation, development and utilization of the miniature pigs' germplasm resources in China, to benefit for the further research on human diseases.

Key words: miniature pigs, model animal, selection methods, diseases of cardiovascular system

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