Why don't pigs get diabetes?
According to the “thrifty gene hypothesis,” the global diabetes epidemic is occurring because our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved in an environment with uncertain food availability and high demands for physical activity, whereas we live in a world with an abundance of food and decreased requirement for physical activity. However, this hypothesis does not account for the marked regional and ethnic differences in diabetes prevalence in different societies.
Consideration of hyperglycemia rates among domesticated mammals suggests that ethnic and national heterogeneity in diabetes prevalence is rooted in more recent events. Domesticated mammals are the result of generations of selective breeding that targeted a phenotype best suited for a particular task. Thus, for thousands of years, domesticated pigs and cows were selectively bred for their ability to efficiently accumulate and store energy for later consumption by humans, whereas dogs and rodent-catching cats were selected to maximize physical work and minimize consumption of food supplied by humans. Pigs and cows should therefore be protected against the toxic effects of a “diabetogenic” environment (i.e., one that favours inactivity and energy abundance), whereas dogs and cats would have no such protection when suddenly placed in a diabetogenic environment. Indeed, hyperglycemia is either unreported or extremely rare in pigs and cows and other domesticated mammals bred to accumulate energy, whereas it is relatively common in dogs and cats, which as pets are now exposed to a different environment from that for which they were bred. This suggests that it is possible for environmental pressures to select for protection against the metabolic consequences of a diabetogenic environment.
From here
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1319339/
Wow I prefer the this little piggy rhyme