A bone biopsy procedure for neonatal pigs

Neonatal pigs were used to develop a surgical biopsy procedure to remove bone tissue from the ilium of small animals, with potential application for infants and small children. While the neonatal pig was under general anaesthesia, a scalpel was used to make a punch incision down to the ilium. Then a Craig Biopsy Trephine was used to remove a core sample of the bone. The samples ranged from 5 to 15 mm in length and 2 to 3 mm in diameter, with an average dry weight of 34.4 mg. The samples were adequate for mineral (calcium and zinc) analysis in our laboratory and may be equally suitable for histological or biochemical analyses. Surgical trauma was minimal, which permitted each pig to be biopsied every 7 days for 5 weeks without adverse consequences.