Articles - Genetics and reproduction

The veterinarian is called from a new established herd in Brittany because some clinical signs appear on gilts from the two first deliveries introduced in the farm.

We should be cautious when setting the number of sperm per insemination dose, so the urge to reduce it does not make us use a number that is under the fertility threshold. Something that may be productive and/or profitable for a certain farm may not be so for another farm.

The procedure is simple, quick and well tolerated by the recipient sows.

There is an unusual increase of the returns-to-oestrus at 31-39 days. The majority are due to sows previously negative to the pregnancy ultrasound testing, and the returns-to-oestrus happened before 42 days.

The farrowing interval is one of the production parameters more commonly used as an indicator of the production efficiency of a farm.

Does the complexity and expense of genomics mean that it will only be available to the major global pig breeding companies in the future? If the price of genotyping continues to reduce, it may be possible for medium and smaller size breeding companies to share funding and identify desired genotypes.

This article suggests some solutions to the main problems encountered in pregnancies with group housing.

The two main factors that make that certain farms have not been successful adapting to the animal welfare regulations are design and handling/management.

Which factors affect the WTSI? Among the factors with a biggest influence we have: inadequate intake during lactation, season of the year, and length of the lactation.

One of the greatest long-term potentials for genomic selection is to identify specific genes or genomic regions with a significant impact on pig health and to aid selection for disease resistance and/or disease tolerance.

Novel cryopreservation methods and containers are designed to increase semen cryosurvival without disturbing production of conventional liquid semen doses. This provides opportunities for gene banking and preserved fertility when inseminated deep intra uterine, alongside undisturbed commercial AI-dose production.

Small piglets with a low viability are a growing problem, and they represent one of the main causes of pre-weaning mortality.

Lameness is the second most common cause for the culling of sows.

The key benefits from the use of DNA information are a greater overall genetic progress, improved selection for ‘difficult’ traits such as piglet survival and ...

Farrowing is a painful and stressful process, especially in the case of gilts and dystocic farrowings.

The piglets that suckle in the rear area of the udder start to eat feed before, and this would explain their better adaptation to the weaning.

Teams from 54 research groups, led by the Universities of Edinburgh (UK), Illinois (USA), Uppsala (Sweden) and Wageningen (Netherlands) have sequenced the entire genome of the pig.

We present a vitality test that is related to the pre-weaning growth and mortality.

The author considers which is the ideal day for the mating and sets out the improvements in the results obtained when weaning on Monday.

Characteristics of the installations, genetics, medications, feeding, etc. of Spanish feedlots based on data of 452 farms that pertain to nine of the 25 biggest pig integration companies in the country.

It is a widely documented fact that pig production has seasonal variations mainly focused on a descent in the reproductive efficiency in the gestation phase (difficulty in the coming into oestrus, a higher number of reproductive failures) during the summer and autumn months.

There are 3 potential options to stabilize BTW herds following an outbreak that have all proven successful over time. They have very different cost and risk profiles and a through economic assessment is needed to determine what the best course of action is for each new outbreak.

These findings provide useful information that will assist swine producers in deciding whether or not to reduce litter size in first-parity sows.

Short weaning to service interval isn’t always a synonym for good management, since we have to take into consideration not only average number of days, but also the effect on the percentage of distribution after returns.