23 The Business of Canadian Hog Farming Better Pork | December 2024 to document all organ and body systems. While seeing the organs affected is critical for diagnosis, knowing which systems are unaffected by a disease process helps to narrow down the likely cause. Start with the pig lying on its right side; examine the outside of the carcass, looking for injuries, prolapses, swollen joints, discoloration of the skin, blood from the nose, fecal staining or anything else that strikes you as different (Image 1). Once examined, make a shallow cut through the skin along the midline of the body and peel it back on the lefthand side. To do this, you will need to fold back the legs. Cut through the skin and muscle under the leg while lifting the leg upwards until it folds out of the way. The scapula (shoulder blade) does not have a bony attachment to the body, so it folds back readily. The hip joint must be disconnected by slicing through the ligaments holding the joint together. Cut down through the muscle in the hip to find this joint (Image 2). Once the skin and limbs are reflected, carefully cut through the muscle of the belly to allow you to open the abdomen without disturbing the internal organs. Extend this cut along the border of the ribs and across the back while lifting the muscle away to expose the abdominal contents (Image 3). Open the chest by cutting through the cartilage where the sternum meets the ribs, cutting between the ribs and folding them back. Depending on the age of the animal, this can be easier or more difficult, with older animals having less cartilage and stronger ribs (Image 4). Once the chest and abdomen are open, take some photos of the undisturbed internal organs (Image 5). Then, you can proceed to look for changes to organ systems. Work through each pig that you necropsy in the same order. A systematic approach to examining the animal will prevent you from missing signs. One approach is to start with the organs in the chest, examining both lungs and the heart, then moving to the filter organs (spleen, liver, lymph nodes and kidneys). Having cleanly examined and collected samples of these tissues, move on to look at the bladder and reproductive organs. Finish the necropsy by examining the digestive tract, looking at the small intestine, large intestine and stomach. The contents of the stomach and large intestine pose the biggest risk for contamination of samples. Leaving them until last allows for good visualization and clean collection of everything else. Examine each organ as a whole and then in sections. Your vet can demonstrate how best to do this for each organ or may have a detailed protocol to share with you. There are many potential findings for a post-mortem: Pale internal organ systems with blood in body cavities, fibrin (thick pus-like material) clinging to the heart, lungs or intestines (Image 6), enlarged encapsulated spleens, stomach ulcers, twisted intestines, the list goes on. With time, practice, and guidance from your veterinarian, you will start to recognize these differences and others. In the meantime, you will have photos to show your veterinarian, giving you both a clearer picture of the opportunities to improve the health of your pigs. In summary, the ability to perform an on-farm post-mortem is a hugely rewarding skill that is straightforward to learn. It requires few resources, costs only your time, and with the guidance of your herd veterinarian, provides opportunities to improve the health and productivity of your farm. Please talk to your veterinarian about getting started at your next herd visit. BP HERD HEALTH JACK KRONE Dr. Jack Krone is a veterinarian with Prairie Livestock Veterinarians in Red Deer, Alta.
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