Articles - Genetics and reproduction

The history and current status of Basque pig breed, a South-West of France autochthonous swine breed.

The history and current status of Alentejano pig breed, a Portuguese autochthonous swine breed.

Pig reproduction and summer are not good friends, Heat comes, daylight hours drop, fertility decreases and the vets come across more reproductive pathology than during the rest of the year. Why doing always the same does not always yield the same result?

It is not only related to NPDs, but it can also have a greater impact than we first thought.

The morphological differences in the cervical wall and canal between multiparous and nulliparous sows require deep AI devices adapted to the characteristics of the nulliparous.

One of the indices that is generating much interest is the one referred to the number of weaned piglets per sow lifetime (WSL). This index refers to the total number of piglets that a sow has weaned throughout its productive life.

A farrow-to-finish farm went from 10% to 50% of returns to oestrus, and almost 90% of them were regular.

The key lies in gilt management ...

Occasionally, breeders end up using semen with a suboptimal fertilizing ability due to inadequate storage conditions.

We talk about weight and age at mating, stall adaptation, flushing, how to perform heat detection and insemination, the convenience or inconvenience of segregating the gilts

Returns increase in a PRRS-positive farm in the middle of a census increase plus a change of management in the batch farrowing system, from 3 weeks to 1.

One of the main tools to encourage the installation of extra lighting in the mating area is the data analysis, and more specifically the weaning-to-service interval.

The compounds responsible of boar taint can be reduced through feeding strategies, genetic selection and good management practices.

Weaning one or several weeks straight into pens, a week worth of space can be gained

This second part on AI stud management reviews the procedure for calculating sperm concentration and the elements that affect a correct assessment.

The impact of semen used for post-cervical AI is 2-3 times bigger than that used to produce cervical insemination doses; therefore, preparation of the doses should follow an even stricter control program.

The owner contacted us because he has seen a reduction in performance in recent months, although no decline has been identified in any particular parameter. He says that, overall, “the sows are doing worse".

Boar exposure time, duration and frequency, proper boar: gilt or sow ratio, exposure methods, hormones, …

This tool allows prediction of potential ejaculate yield and to aid in diagnosing subfertility/infertility associated with diseased tissues.

Sows with more than 16 piglets Total Born (TB) per litter have twice as many stillbirths (SB) as those with 13 to 16 TB litters, and three times more SB than sows farrowing litters smaller than 13 TB.

The animals that were retained several times throughout the flow originated from sows with lower average parity. They had a much lower carcass weight (around 10kg) and a higher average score for lameness, pleurisy and enzootic pneumonia lesions.

The farm reports a problem of low prolificacy (mean annual live births of 11.91) and low fertility in summer, with a marked increase in acyclic returns.

We recommend that producers pay more attention to gilts and sows that are at risk of increasing NPD. Situations of increased risk are described.

This second part deals with the problems caused by not  recording properly the cause of abortions, sows and piglets deaths, nurse sows and hormonal treatments.