Miniature Pigs, also called mini pig, or Pygmy pig,
are small
breed
A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...
s of
domestic pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...
, such as the
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pig,
Göttingen minipig
The Göttingen minipig (also known as the ''Göttinger'' or "Goettingen" minipig) is a breed of small swine. The Göttingen minipig is the smallest domestic pig breed known in the world; as an adult, they weigh around . Beside being known for the ...
,
Juliana pig
Juliana (variants Julianna, Giuliana, Iuliana, Yuliana, etc) is a feminine given name which is the feminine version of the Roman name Julianus.
Juliana or Giuliana was the name of a number of early saints, notably Saint Julian the Hospitaller, wh ...
,
Choctaw hog, or
Kunekune
The Kunekune or is a small breed of domestic pig from New Zealand. Kunekune are hairy with a rotund build, and may bear wattles hanging from their lower jaws. Their colour ranges from black and white, to ginger, cream, gold-tip, black, brown, ...
(and specimens derived by crossbreeding these breeds). Miniature pigs can usually be distinguished from other pigs by their pot belly, a swayed back, a chubby figure, a rounded head, a short snout, short legs, a short neck, and a tail with thick hair at the end. Typically, miniature pigs will range in weight from about to .
History
In the 1960s, Chinese pigs that grew to be were sent to zoos in Western cities
and were used for medical research in the fields of toxicology, pharmacology, pulmonology, cardiology, aging, and as a source of
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
s for
organ transplant
Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transpo ...
ation. These comparatively smaller pigs were easier to work with than larger pig breeds, which typically reach weights of .
In the mid-1980s, Keith Connell of the
Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario imported breeding
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied pigs to Canada, which became the foundation for the pot-bellied pig in North America.
The breed is known for its small stature, swayed back, and pronounced pot belly. Because of custom laws, only their offspring could be sold in the United States. U.S. zoos were the main target for the piglets, but private owners soon began purchasing them as
pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
s. Pet pot-bellied pigs started to appear everywhere; from New York apartment complexes to small suburban residences. Up to five additional imports were made in the following 10 years. To track the pedigrees, the Potbellied Pig Registry Service, Inc (PPRSI) was created to preserve these bloodlines and establish a breed registry in the United States. This registry was dissolved in the late 1990s.
Today, most pot-bellied pigs are little to never purebred, as the pure breed is critically endangered.
The Miniature Potbellied Pig Registry Service, Inc (MPPRSI) was established in 1993 to provide a registry for those pigs who were pedigreed in the PPRSI and met the breed standard, when fully grown not being more than
tall and weighing under . All of the foundation pigs were dual registered in the PPRSI and MPPRSI.
Beginning in the late 1960s at the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics (Institut für Tierzucht und Haustiergenetik) at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the
Göttingen minipig
The Göttingen minipig (also known as the ''Göttinger'' or "Goettingen" minipig) is a breed of small swine. The Göttingen minipig is the smallest domestic pig breed known in the world; as an adult, they weigh around . Beside being known for the ...
was developed by crossbreeding the
Minnesota minipig, the
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied
Vietnamese Pot-bellied is the exonym for the Lon I ( vi, Lợn Ỉ, italic=no) or I pig, an endangered traditional Vietnamese breed of small domestic pig.
The I is uniformly black and has short legs and a low-hanging belly, from which the name ...
pig and the
German Landrace
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
pig. It is considered the smallest
breed
A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...
of
domestic pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...
in the world.
[Bollen, PJA & Ellegaard, L.(1996). Developments in Breeding Göttingen Minipigs. In Tumbleson & Schook (eds.) Advances in Swine in Biomedical Research. New York: Plenum Press]
Medical research
Miniature pigs have been used for medical research, including
toxicology
Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...
,
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
, experimental surgery, pulmonology, cardiology, xenotransplantation, orthopedic procedures
and aging studies. Mini pigs are mainly used for biochemical, anatomical, and physiological similarities to humans. They are also quick to develop, making it easier to breed and have more genomic background compared to other animal models of toxicology. Today, more than 60,000 pigs are used for scientific research. For example, scientists are working on studying the possibility of utilizing pig hearts for human heart organ transplants, and work has been done to genetically modify the tissues of pigs to be accepted by the human immune system.
As pets
![Cerdo (mini pig) joven en las calles de la colonia Condesa, ciudad de México](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Cerdo_%28mini_pig%29_joven_en_las_calles_de_la_colonia_Condesa%2C_ciudad_de_M%C3%A9xico.jpg)
Miniature pigs are commonly kept as
pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
s.
Realistic sizes of pigs vary from pig to pig; genetics drives the growth, along with appropriate nutrition and care. Domesticated miniature pigs can vary from 75 lbs to 200lbs. It may be possible to reduce the risk of ending up with a large pig by looking at the pig's parents and grandparents if possible.
[''Minimizing risk when buying a micro pig''](_blank)
About Micro Pigs and their size - UK However, since pigs can breed years before they fully mature, unscrupulous or ignorant breeders may show off parent pigs which are not fully grown themselves, so have not reached their full adult size.
October 28, 2009
Domesticated pigs are often trained to urinate and defecate in litter boxes, which they learn very quickly. Typically, pine pellets or pine shreds are used. They also can be trained on dog pee pads. They can also be trained to ring a bell by a door when they need to go outside.
In the U.S. as well as Canada, laws may vary on if a
pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
pig can be kept, depending on the location. If there are no laws regarding pet pigs, some areas may consider a pig to be exclusively known as
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
; some towns and cities have ordinances disallowing farm animals within city limits. However, one can petition city councils and have outdated ordinances amended before a pig is introduced into a household, since many ordinances were put into place before the pot-bellied pig was even introduced to the U.S.
Pig therapy
Pigs have been used in various types of
animal-assisted therapy
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an alternative or complementary type of therapy that includes the use of animals in a treatment. The goal of this animal-assisted intervention is to improve a patient's social, emotional, or cognitive functionin ...
to perform duties in facilities including airports, hospitals,
nursing homes, and special-needs schools, or as emotional support animals for individuals with conditions such as autism or anxiety and veterans with PTSD. Two well-known miniature pigs named ''
Thunder and Bolt
Thunder and Bolt are a pair of miniature pigs certified by the American Mini Pig Association as therapy animals owned and trained by then 10-year-old Claire Barrow.
Thunder and Bolt made their therapy animal debut at Tampa General Hospital when t ...
'' trained by children to certified animal therapy status have been put to work in a number of nursing homes, schools and a hospital.
Other notable references
A
Yucatan miniature pig is the unofficial mascot of the Animal Rescue League of Boston.
Meet Rosie a Yucatan miniature pig
May 10, 2009 NECN.com
The world's smallest wild pig species is the long wild pygmy hog
The pygmy hog (''Porcula salvania'') is the rarest species of pig in the world today, and is the only species in the genus ''Porcula''. It is also the smallest species of pig in the world, with its piglets being small enough to fit in one's pock ...
which lives in Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.[Mini pigs are big success on farm](_blank)
15 October 2007 BBC News It is a critically endangered wild species, not appropriate for domestication.
See also
*Wuzhishan pig
The Wuzhishan pig is a breed of inbred miniature pig created by Professor Feng Shutang to be used as a model animal for medical research.
Physical description
The Wuzhishan pig grows up to a size of 50-70 cm (19.7-27.5 inches) long, and up to ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miniature Pig
Mammals as pets
Pig breeds originating in Canada