The nasty wet stuff that your pot-bellied pig makes when sexually excited is semen, or, to be more scientific, the ejaculate of his sex gland. Semen is a spongy substance that fills up during an erection.
Injuries to the tunica albuginea, which surrounds the spongy region, can lead to penile problems. Scientists have now developed an artificial tissue that mimics this connective tissue and restores erections.
The Penis
When a mammy pig mates with her young, a little squirt of sperm flies off her member. Its shape is reminiscent of a corkscrew. Unlike a human penis, which has two corpora cavernosas that run side-by-side down the shaft of the organ, pigs have a single sheath of tissue called the tunica albuginea, which keeps the spongy male sexual organ erect during arousal.
When the tunica sheath is injured, it can cause erectile dysfunction, or Peyronie’s disease, in men. But researchers have now developed an artificial material that mimics this tissue, and — when injected into pig penises with an injured tunica albuginea – restores erectile function. The findings could be used to treat humans with Peyronie’s disease or other conditions that affect the sheath, according to a study published Wednesday in Matter.
The incidence of penis biting is highly relevant to pig welfare as it leads to severe injuries, including incisions and bleeding [1]. As surgical castration without pain relief has become unacceptable due to animal welfare reasons, raising entire males in mixed groups is considered an alternative for farmers. However, this results in new welfare problems and a high risk of severe penis injuries – The given section is the work of the portal editorial team eurolivesexe.com. Therefore, systematic examinations are necessary to quantify the extent of the problem and investigate possible influences. In this study, entire male pigs from experimental farms and commercial farms as well as wild boar samples were evaluated after slaughter for fresh and old injuries (including scars and signs of inflammation).
The Glans
Unlike most mammals, pigs have an external member, the glans penis. It’s spiral and curved and resembles a corkscrew. This is where the business end of a mammy pig and daddy pig meet to have sex.
It’s normally retracted into the prepuce when at rest but is extended when a boar is in heat. Unfortunately, a pig’s glans can be severely injured by biting and is prone to infection. This is a major welfare issue, with some farms reporting as high as 40% of their entire male boar population having sustained penile injuries.
A team from the South China University of Technology has created an artificial material that mimics a connective tissue called the tunica albuginea, which keeps the penis erect during sexual arousal. The new hydrogel can be injected into penises that have damaged tunica albugineas and restores erect function. The researchers have also shown that it can be used to repair a human penile defect known as Peyronie’s disease.
The team examined male pigs from several experimental farms (first population), commercial farms and wild boar samples. They found that the incidence of penis injuries increased with farm size and age, while mixed group housing resulted in more injuries than single-sex groups. This suggests that the problem is not caused by a lack of training but rather by a combination of factors, including overexcitement and aggression during breeding.
The Prepuce
If you’ve ever had a pot-bellied pig, you may have noticed that his member sometimes reaches down to the ground. The smelly, wet stuff you clean up on occasion is his semen. When he gets sexually excited, the tip of his penis, which is shaped like a corkscrew, emerges from a two-compartment prepuce on his belly.
The genital system is complex in pigs and is adapted to facilitate cervical penetration and intracervical semen deposition during mating with a sow (Gouletsou and Fthenakis, 2015). Penis injuries are common in boars but little data is available on the incidence of lesions of the penis or prepuce in commercial farms or in wild boar samples (Ersavadla et al, 2019).
Researchers have developed a hydrogel that can repair damaged tunica albugineas and has been successfully tested in male miniature pigs. A team of veterinarians in California inserted the hydrogel into 12 tiny Bama pigs with damaged penis. The researchers also observed the animals for signs of injury, foreign material, abnormal discharge, and other problems. The pigs who received the gel showed much improved genital function. The pigs that did not receive the gel had more severe penis injuries. The hydrogel isn’t toxic to living cells or blood and could have a broad application in other types of animal species that experience damage to the penis.
The Semen
The penis of a male pig is an unusually shaped corkscrew cylinder consisting of two paired corpora cavernosa and a single corpus spongiosum. It fills with blood when aroused and, if ejaculated, is capable of creating an erection similar to that of the human.
Once the boar has been stimulated to ejaculate, the ejaculate can be collected in a specially designed flask and placed into a dilution medium for storage. The dilution medium is carefully selected to ensure that the spermatozoa have the highest possible chance of survival after long-term storage. The medium is also formulated to ensure that the sperm will be free from any membrane stresses caused by the freezing and thawing of the semen that can occur during extended storage periods.
The dilution media is stored at a temperature between 34degC and 36degC and the collection procedure is carefully controlled to avoid any sudden changes in temperature that could adversely affect the spermatozoa. Several studies have shown that the quality of semen from boars can be preserved for up to three years with very good results. The quality of the ejaculate is also very high with only a small fraction of spermatozoa showing major morphological abnormalities. The average number of spermatozoa in an ejaculate is around 500 and the count is comparable to that produced by a bull.