Swine are commonly used in experimental surgery because of anatomic and physiologic similarity to humans in many models. Advantages to the use of pigs in the laboratory include low cost, ready availability, and ease of acclimation to the laboratory. Disadvantages include the uncooperative nature of pigs with respect to most clinical procedures, limited number of intravenous access sites, and relative difficulty of endotracheal intubation Because animals larger than 100 kg are difficult to handle in the laboratory, selective breeding has produced several types of miniature swine for research. The Gottingen minipigs and the Yucatan micropigs achieve a maximum bodyweight of 35–55 kg at 2 years of age. The Hanford and Yucatan minipigs are somewhat larger, and weigh 70–90 kg at 2 years of age. By contrast, adult crossbred farm pigs weigh 90–110 kg at 6 months of age, and 200–300 kg at 2 years of age (Bollen et al., 2000; Swindle, 2007). Juvenile crossbred farm pigs are less expensive than minipigs or micropigs, and are often used for short-term surgical studies.
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