There is more to pigs than pork. Researchers at Purdue University in the US have cannibalised discarded swine to reconstruct damaged human arteries, veins, ligaments and tendons.

Stephen F Badylak and his colleagues first sterilise the middle layer of a pig's small intestine, and then mould it into sheets and tubes. Animal studies showed that within weeks this material remodeled itself into a brand new ligament. And within a year, all traces of the material disappeared. Badylak hopes human trials would begin next year.