Pigs come from a commercial pig farm. They are Landrace, large white cross. They are
commercially bred for meat. They are not a research pig, they are a normal commercial
pig. As soon as the pigs arrive here. We immediately have contact with them. They have obviously
arrived from a farm without a great deal of human contact, they come into a strange environment,
different smells, different sounds and they are obviously slightly timid. We go in and
just sit with them. We go in and sit down on the floor and wait for them to come up
to us, we get them tame, we get them friendly so therefore it’s no stress involved at
all in moving animals from its holding pen over to the operation theatre.
We train them to go into a weight crate at an early age. We bring the weigh crate into
the pen, open up the doors and just let them investigate. Open the door they will invariably
go straight into the weigh crate, close the door you have the pig, without any stress
at all of physically moving that pig. There are three pigs in the pen, they are
very researched creatures. We never let them be on their own if any pig come on its own
for any reason we always make sure that there is a companion pig that comes in with it.
First thing in the morning, usually 8 o’clock we will come in clean, feed and clean out
the pigs. The first thing is literally is hear our voice. I always say ‘morning girls’
and as soon as they hear my voice, they recognise me and it’s like oh great, here we go, food.
The food gets generally sprinkled around the pens so that they can actually look for it, the
natural thing is to forage for food, so you can sprinkle it around the pen for them and
they will forage for food. While they are eating that is when they are cleaned out because
they will be eating and will leave you alone to clean out the pen.
If they had had invasive heart surgery, normally that pig will then stay in recovery in the
theatre for 24 hours and we will collect the pig two days later. After the surgery it will
be in anaesthetist and our technician will be with that pig overnight. When that pig
comes back we will introduce it back into the home pen, of course if once they have come back
we will give them extra bit of TLC and check them more regularly throughout the day, take
temperatures, make sure the wound is clean and it’s not weeping. If there is any problem,
obviously contact the NVS (named veterinary surgeon). There is one pig in this pen that
has had heart surgery, she is now around 70 kilos and she had heart surgery when she was
about 20 kilos, she has had a full bypass in the heart.
You cannot help but get attached to these animals. We do this job because we love animals,
I’ve been here 19 years, I’ve done this job since 1978 and I still now and again get
a lump in my throat when I have to take a pig over for the last time.
The actual research that is going on with these animals I think is absolutely fantastic.
It is advancing our knowledge of life saving for humans, for future humans. The pigs are
an ideal model for this. Now and again there has been things on local television about
the research, the heart research that is going on in Bristol University and it makes me feel
proud when I see that, that I part of that. I’m probably at the bottom of the chain
but without me the surgeons can’t do their job. I like to think I make their job easy
by getting these animals friendly, tame etc. I’m extremely proud to be part of this work.