Health status

The rederivation of the colony at the University of Göttingen was
performed in 1969. Recently, it was recognized that the Göttingen minipig®
had to be microbiologically defined in order to follow modern developments
in laboratory animal science. It is obvious that microbiological standardization
is necessary because of possible interference of pathogens with experimental
results. Known effects of microorganisms on animal experiments are
pathological changes, immunomodulation, physiological changes,
interference with reproduction, competition of pathogens with the animal,
oncogenesis and contamination of biological products.
The influence of these factors can be reduced by using microbiologically
defined animals for experiments.

The Göttingen minipig® is regularly health monitored, according to
guidelines of the Scandinavian Association for Laboratory Animal Science
and the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations
has published recommendations for health monitoring of experimental
pig breeding colonies, which are implemented at the full-barrier breeding
facility in Dalmose.