Topographic distribution of gastritis in heavy pigs investigated by a geographic information system approach

The aim of this paper was to determine the topographic distribution of gastritis lesions in pigs through an open source geographic information system (GIS) software analysis. The stomachs of 146 Italian heavy pigs were collected at slaughter and subjected to macroscopic pathological examination of the internal mucosa. A total of 623 lesions were either classified as hyperplastic or follicular (97%) with the remaining minority of lesions categorised as atrophic and simple. The hyperplastic gastritis lesions had an average surface of 77.8 cm² and were mainly located in an oval shaped area of the fundus region of the stomach near the Curvatura ventriculi major. The follicular gastritis lesions had generally a smaller surface (40.3 cm²) and were concentrated in two distinct small areas of the pyloric region. The GIS analysis provided the opportunity to produce useful maps showing the distribution and characteristics of gastritis in pigs.