Allometrische Aspekte zur Ermittlung der Widerristhöhe bei Schweinen auf der Grundlage der Daten von M. Teichert

Because of the long known allometric relationships between the measurements of long bones and body height in humans, the authors first performed calculations to determine whether there are corresponding relationships between the measurements obtained by Teichert and withers height of pigs. These calculations required the use of original data (M. Teichert, 1969 a and b). Positive intraspecific allometries were found for practically all skeletal elements including carpi and tarsi. From this it follows that there are factors dependent on body size. Therefore regression equations based on the allometric formula should be used in future calculations. Corresponding equations and standard errors of estimates are presented for the most important measurements. Accordingly all factors were re-calculated with their 95-percent confidence levels, to determine the statistical relevance of these elements for age, sex and population classes and to enable comparison with results from regression calculations. Clear differences between the analysed groups were found for the different measurements. Although withers height cannot be determined for individuals very often using either method, the allometric method delivers mean values more exactly. This is especially so when populations of extremely small animals are compared with populations of very large animals.