Evidence for a genetic factor in the transmission of spontaneous lymphosarcoma (leukaemia) of young pigs.

Abstract

A HISTOLOGICAL survey of lymphosarcoma1 (leukaemia) in 1968 in abattoirs throughout Great Britain showed an incidence of twenty-five cases per million pigs slaughtered, that is, ninety-two cases from 3.7 million pigs. There was multicentric lymphosarcoma in fifty-seven pigs and thymic lymphosarcoma in thirty-five pigs, and there was no indication of lymphosarcoma in other pigs on the farms concerned or even that it had occurred there previously. It is therefore of some interest that we have now found lymphosarcoma to have occurred several times in a single herd.