Biological sex is a major host factor influencing risk for infectious disease-associated mortality, and chronic inflammatory and metabolic diseases. Research in human and rodent models –has revealed sex differences that exist across organ systems during health and disease that may contribute to sex biases in disease risk. Despite the robust and growing literature on the role of sex as a risk factor in human disease, comparatively little attention has been focused on investigating the role of biological sex in disease susceptibility in agriculturally important animal populations such as the pig. To date, comparisons between sexes have focused on carcass composition, growth rate, and feed efficiency in pigs. However, there is a large gap in the literature regarding the effects of biological sex on other integral aspects of health and disease. The objective of this review is to highlight the available literature reporting sex differences in pig health and biology with an emphasis on sex differences in mortality, immunity, and gastrointestinal (GI) physiology and to address biological sex as a significant biological variable in disease risk and research study design. A basic overview of the biology of sex differences including the major hormonal and genetic/chromosomal mechanisms of sexual differentiation and the developmental periods in which sex differences emerge will be covered. This review will also discuss how production-relevant management and environmental factors (e.g., wean age, castration, stress, and nutrition) interact with biological sex to shape host immune and GI development and function. Perceived gaps in knowledge and areas of future research will also be discussed.

中文翻译：

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生物性别：驱动猪疾病易感性的未被充分研究的因素

生理性别是影响传染病相关死亡率、慢性炎症和代谢性疾病风险的主要宿主因素。对人类和啮齿动物模型的研究——揭示了在健康和疾病期间跨器官系统存在的性别差异，这可能导致疾病风险中的性别偏见。尽管关于性作为人类疾病危险因素的作用的文献越来越多，但相对较少的注意力集中在研究生物性别在农业重要动物种群（如猪）的疾病易感性中的作用。迄今为止，性别之间的比较主要集中在猪的胴体成分、生长速度和饲料效率上。然而，关于生理性别对健康和疾病的其他整体方面的影响，文献中存在很大差距。本综述的目的是强调现有文献报告猪健康和生物学的性别差异，重点是死亡率、免疫力和胃肠道 (GI) 生理学的性别差异，并将生物学性别作为疾病风险和疾病风险的重要生物学变量研究学习设计。将涵盖性别差异生物学的基本概述，包括性别分化的主要激素和遗传/染色体机制以及性别差异出现的发育时期。本综述还将讨论与生产相关的管理和环境因素（例如，断奶年龄、阉割、应激和营养）如何与生物性别相互作用以影响宿主免疫和胃肠道发育和功能。还将讨论在知识和未来研究领域中的感知差距。