Quantitative Image Analysis of Skeletal Muscle from Newborn Pigs with Myofibrillar Hypoplasia and Splayleg

Cross-sections of semitendinosus muscle from Landrace pigs with splayleg and from unaffected litter-mates were examined with a Quantimet 720 image analyzer to determine the extent and distribution of myofibrillar hypoplasia (MFH). MFH was not uniformly distributed, so that measurement of a large number of muscle samples was necessary. Even though the extent of MFH was found to be the same in the two groups of pigs there was a very highly significant difference between the arrangement of the myofibrils within the fascicles of affected and unaffected animals.