Effects of sex, age and body weight on selected organs of indigenous Nigerian pigs: liver, kidney, heart, lung-and-trachea

Abstract

SummaryThe absolute and relative growth of the liver, kidney, heart and lung-and-trachea were studied for 64 female, 64 castrated male and 64 intact male indigenous Nigerian pigs between birth and 672 days of age. Highly significant (P< 0·001) sex and age influences were obtained for the absolute and relative weights of the liver, kidney and heart. At 280 days of age, the four organs on average weighed 28 times their birth values; the terminal weights averaged 1·31 times their values at 280 days. Organ growth became stabilized after 280 days.The allometric equation:Y=aXb, transformed to its linear form logY= loga+blogX, was employed to examine the relationship between organ weight and body weight. The growth coefficients 6 obtained ranged from 0·787 for kidney to 0·850 for lung-and-trachea and were similar to values reported in the literature. The accompanying highly significantR2values strongly indicate that the functions of these organs are related to overall metabolism, which in turn is strongly dependent on body size.