Inherited renal cysts in pigs: results of breeding experiments

A landrace boar with a previous history of siring progeny with cystic kidneys was bred to five unrelated large white sows. Thirty-eight of 61 progeny (62 per cent) were affected with renal cysts. This incidence does not differ significantly from that expected with autosomal dominant inheritance. Three of the dams and the boar were found at post mortem examination to have renal cysts. The number of cysts may be determined by polygenic inheritance. Study of the pathology of the cysts in one-day-old, 25- to 32-day-old and 370-day-old progeny indicated a complex pathogenesis including probable recruitment to the cyst population throughout the period studied. The syndrome studied did not resemble previously described polycystic syndromes of the pig nor was it closely comparable to any of the well described polycystic syndromes and renal cystic disorders of man.