Leg weakness and osteochondrosis in pigs; differences between the sexes of four breeds

Clinical observations on leg weakness (1: sound, 5: severe defects or lameness) and pathological assessments on osteochondrosis (0: no lesions, 3 or 5: severe lesions) were carried out on pigs just before and after slaughter. The animals belonged to four breeds, viz. Duroc (D: 6 ♂, 12 ♀), Piétrain (P: 16 ♂, 6 ♀), Great Yorkshire (GY: 22 ♂, 13 ♀) and Dutch Landrace (NL: 6 ♂, 34 ♀, 44 ♂).Between breeds the leg weakness scores in boars' front legs showed minor differences (1.7–2.3); the hind legs showing more (3.0–3.8). In gilts the fore legs of the Piétrains showed the highest (3.7) incidence of defects. The hind legs in the D-gilts (2.5) scored best. The differences between the sexes were not of the same tenor in the various breeds.Between breeds within sexes, the D-breed and the GY-gilts showed the highest incidence of osteochondrosis in the fore legs; within the breeds the D, P and NL-gilts tended to be better than the corresponding boars. The boars' femur was less affected in the D (1.5) and NL-breeds (2.3) compared to the Piétrains (3.6) and GY (2.8). The gilts' medial femoral condyle showed the highest incidence of osteochondrosis in the P-breed (4.2). Within breeds the D and NL-boars were better than the gilts. The NL-barrows were the most affected within that breed.It was concluded that the degree of leg weakness and osteochondrosis of one sex in a breed cannot be translated to the other sex within that breed, nor to the same sex of another breed.