Spontaneous background pathology in Göttingen minipigs.

The Gottingen minipig is gaining increasing popularity as a nonrodent species in nonclinical testing. The Gottingen minipig is easy to handle; has many anatomical and physiological similarities to man; and causes fewer ethical concerns than usage of the traditional nonrodent species, nonhuman primates, and dogs. The increasing usage of the Gottingen minipig has raised the need of appropriate background data. This article summarizes the background pathology of 835 untreated control Gottingen minipigs of both sexes used at CiToxLAB Scantox A/S during the period of 1995 to 2007.