Source: Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and College of Agriculture
AUBURN Ala.—A curly-haired, morbidly obese, genetically primitive breed of Hungarian pig that until recently was on the brink of extinction could be key to the eventual prevention of diabetes and heart disease in humans, Auburn University researchers contend.
The breed is the Mangalitsa, and two years after importing the initial group of piglets from their native land to the Auburn University Swine Research and Education Center, Auburn animal scientist Terry Brandebourg has determined that as the commonly called “wooly” pigs pack on layers of adipose tissue, they spontaneously develop symptoms of metabolic syndrome similar to those that obese humans develop, including insulin resistance, liver dysfunction and inflamed adipose tissue. (more)
