All in a day @ work
The best thing about working at IU is that one work day is rarely like another.
When Michael Sturek, chair of the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at the IU School of Medicine, invited IU Home Pages to visit the Ossabaw swine breeding colony outside West Lafayette this month, our intrepid photographer Chris Meyer and I headed north to the flatlands, meeting Sturek and staff at the buildings on the frigid tundra that houses the breeding stock and the nursery.
Talk about a great nursery; these piglets are happy piglets. A staff that is dedicated to their care and feeding know each pig by name; the caretakers have backgrounds in animal science and spend a lot of "face time" with each pig during the course of their shifts.
The pigs really need it. Coming originally from Spain some 500 years ago, they had evolved into a feral herd, and when Sturek and colleagues went to Ossabaw Island, Ga., some years ago to rescue the swine, catching them by hand gave new meaning to the term "greased pig."
They were a cantankerous lot, isolated on a barrier island for centuries, and would revert quickly back to their feral selves if not for the socializing they receive. They are fat and small, and mirror some of the characteristics of obese humans, making them perfect stand-ins for human beings in the lab. They hold the key to medical advances in any number of areas -- from the pre-diabetic state known as metabolic syndrome to cardiovascular disease. A shipment was bound for Emory University the day we visited, and pigs are on backorder at the facility, owing to a resurgence of interest in the breed.
Truth is, these pigs are more like lap dogs and are extremely smart. They use their snouts to play the pipes, a kind of wind chime or xylophone effect on the metal stays of their pens; it's not Facebook but a great communication tool for staying in touch with nearby pen pals or to call caretakers. Some love to have their bellies rubbed and literally do roll up into their caretakers' laps for a little social networking time. Temperature, health, hygiene and diet are monitored 24 hours a day.
The four-month-old pigs are cute as a button and squeal at newcomers with the ferocity of, well, a baby put into the hands of a stranger.
Thank you, Mike Sturek, Kim Pohle, swine resource coordinator, and staffers Sabrina Baker, Kara Harvey, Kristen Malczewski, Katie McCullough and Anne Merritt for a very interesting trip out of the cubicle.
--Jayne Spencer, editor, IU Home Pages
(Editor's note: Click here to see the Ossabaws in action.)
