Vet Med - Czech, 2024, 69(7):254-259 | DOI: 10.17221/5/2024-VETMED

Melanocytic cutaneous lesions in Sus ibericus, are these a cause for meat condemnation?Short Communication

J Castanho1, J Catarino ORCID...1,2, L Pedroso1,3, A Alvarado ORCID...4,5, S Ramos ORCID...1,3
1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Lusófona – Lisbon University Center, Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal
2 School of Animal Health, Protection and Welfare, Lusophone Polytechnic Institute, Lisbon, Portugal
3 Veterinary and Animal Research Centre (CECAV), University Lusófona – Lisbon University Center, Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal
4 Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
5 Centre for Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB) University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto-Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

The Alentejano pig (Sus ibericus) is an autochthonous breed of swine from Portugal phylogenetically close to the Iberian breed that is known to develop melanocytic lesions. In this study, 34 melanocytic skin lesions were identified and collected from Alentejano pigs slaughtered for human consumption for further routine histologic assessment. The samples were classified into 4 age ranges: 1 (1 to 6 months), 2 (7 to 12 months) 3 (13 to 24 months), and 4 (more than 25 months). All the lesions were considered benign after the histopathological assessment, of which 52.9% and 47.1%, were classified as melanosis and melanocytomas, respectively. Regarding the age ranges, a statistical difference between the groups was observed, indicating that the probability of melanosis presentation was higher at the age range 4 and for melanocytomas at the age range 3. While no malignant lesions were observed in this study, it was concluded that benign melanocytic lesions are commonly found in Alentejano pig carcasses. Further research is necessary to accurately distinguish between malignant and benign lesions, which is crucial for official veterinarians to make decisions regarding meat approval or condemnation.

Keywords: Alentejano pig; meat safety; melanocytic tumours; melanocytoma; melanosis

Received: January 21, 2024; Revised: May 20, 2024; Accepted: May 28, 2024; Published: July 31, 2024  Show citation

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Castanho J, Catarino J, Pedroso L, Alvarado A, Ramos S. Melanocytic cutaneous lesions in Sus ibericus, are these a cause for meat condemnation? Vet Med - Czech. 2024;69(7):254-259. doi: 10.17221/5/2024-VETMED.
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