Scientists Say Pigs Really Are Almost Identical to Humans

By Sara Tan Nov 15th 2012

According to the Daily Mail U.K., "Animal Farm" author George Orwell was right - humans and pigs are almost identical. A new study has found that like humans, swine are adaptable, easy to seduce with food and also easily domesticated creatures.



These findings were published in the journal "Nature" by investigators, including Professor Martin Groenen, one of the main scientists in the study. Groenen and his team found that pigs suffer from some of the same genetic and protein malfunctions seen in human diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and obesity.

"We identified many more gene variants implicated in human disease, further supporting the pig as a valuable biomedical model," said Groenen.

Additionally, the study also found the reasons why humans first domesticated pigs and farmed them for food. While pigs have an excellent sense of smell, they have a poor sense of taste due to a lack of bitter receptor genes.

"Understanding the genes that shape the characteristics of pigs can point to how and why they were domesticated by humans. Perhaps it was their ability to eat stuff that is unpalatable to us humans," said Alan Archibald, professor at the University of Edinburgh. These findings are important to the understanding of the origins of the modern pig and the implications for agriculture. More than a billion pigs are farmed worldwide on a yearly basis.

Bob Easter, another scientist in the group, said, "This study demonstrates the benefits of basic genomic research on agricultural animals and their closest living relatives."

IS THIS A MUTANT PIG-DOG?: