Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 July 2002
Three female pigs, one with bilateral and two with unilateral hernia inguinalis, from farms near Río Cuarto, Argentina were studied to assess the hypothesis of intersexuality due to porcine freemartinism. Karyotype analysis of lymphocyte cultures was carried out to look for XX/XY chromosome chimerism. Examination of anatomical and histological characteristics of sexual organs was also performed to describe possible sexual tract abnormalities. The animal with the bilateral hernia inguinalis was shown to be a case of true hermaphroditism. Externally it had female genitalia and inside the abdomen, on the left side, one mature ovary and one testis were located. On the right side of the hernia, a scrotal ovotestis was present. All cytogenetically analysed lymphocytes had the female karyotype. The two animals having unilateral hernia and lymphocyte sexual chromosome chimerism were porcine freemartin.