Histopathological scoring of paired ear bite mark and scratch lesions in recently weaned pigs
Description
This dataset contains histopathological scores for paired ear pinna lesions — an ear-directed oral manipulation (aka "ear biting") "bite mark" and an aggression-related "scratch" (aka "fight lesion") — collected from the same ear of 10 individually identified pigs at four days post-weaning (20 biopsies total). Each row represents one biopsy, identified by pig ID, farrowing pen the pig originated from before weaning, ear side (Left/Right), and lesion type (Bite/Scratch). For each biopsy, the dataset records semi-quantitative histopathological scores (0 = normal or absent, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate; no sample scored 3/severe) for 14 parameters: orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis, epidermal hyperplasia, epidermal necrosis, clefting, pustules, spongiosis, exocytosis, ulceration, dermal fibrosis, perivascular inflammation, vasculitis, vascular hypertrophy, oedema, and cartilage necrosis. It also records the presence/absence of bacteria, the predominant perivascular inflammatory cell type, and the presence/absence of serocellular crusting (recorded both as a text category and as a binary 0/1 flag). Ear biting in piglets and ear scratches from aggression at weaning (after pigs are mixed into pens with unfamiliar pigs) are both common but poorly characterised at the tissue level. These data were collected to determine whether the mechanical damage caused by ear biting ("bite marks") produces histopathological changes comparable to those caused by more visibly obvious aggression-related scratches, and to evaluate whether such damage could plausibly predispose the ear pinna to ear necrosis, a serious post-weaning welfare condition. Study design: Forty female pigs from 20 litters were euthanised four days post-weaning at the Teagasc Pig Research Facility, Moorepark, Fermoy, Ireland. Both ear pinnae from each pig were photographed and visually inspected for gross lesions. Using a 4 mm sterile dermal biopsy punch, one bite mark and one ear scratch were sampled from the same ear pinna where both lesion types co-occurred. From this pool, paired samples (one bite mark, one scratch, from the same ear) from 10 pigs (5 sampled from the right ear, 5 from the left) were selected, fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin, paraffin-embedded, sectioned at 4 µm, stained with haematoxylin and eosin, and scored by a single board-certified veterinary pathologist blinded to lesion identity.
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Institutions
- Teagasc - The Irish Agriculture and Food Development AuthorityLeinster, Carlow