“Porkey” has been dismissed as hogwash.
Dr Mark Trotman, senior veterinary officer in the Ministry of Health, told the MIDWEEK NATION yesterday that it was “literally impossible” for mating to take place between a monkey and pig.
He was reacting to reports from St Lucy farmer Daphne Boyce that one of her piglets born last Saturday resembled a monkey and a pig. The farmer’s sow had given birth to a litter of 12 but one was acting strange. Boyce said when she turned it over, she was shocked to see that it had the face of a monkey as well as one pig ear and a monkey’s ear.
While Trotman stressed that he could not speak with any “degree of certainty” since he had not personally examined the piglet or carried out a post-mortem, he said from the photograph published in this newspaper, it appeared that the pig was deformed.
“It would have been good for us to have done a post-mortem to see what’s going on, but it looks like a regular hypertropia deformity – an excessive amount of hair and other physical deformities. It is not a mate between a monkey and a pig; that is literally impossible,” he stated.
“Just like we have birth defects, all animals get birth defects. It’s just another one of those birth defects that do happen from time to time, either genetics or developmental,” he added.
Trotman reminded the public that his office examined animals with no cost attached.
“It’s a useful academic exercise for us to take a look at it. If it is happening on regular basis, it could impact on the productivity of the animal. We would be interested in taking a look at it and for livestock we do not charge anybody. It is totally free to just send the animal to us for us to take a look at it and see – only if to record that these things happen. You never know, there may be some underlying issues that might needfurther investigation.” (MB)
