Articles - Genetics and reproduction

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.

There was an increase of repetitions in females (at 17-28 days, cyclic and acyclic, with a repeat rate of 22%) and mucous-like, white to brown (chocolate) vulvovaginal discharge hours after artificial insemination.

What if we were to wean on Friday and were able to block farrowings for 2 days? The bulk of farrowings would be concentrated on Monday.

The farm, with an elevated number of animals, had been experiencing for several days an increased number of births in gestation on the weekend before moving the sows to the farrowing pens. Mortality in these births was 100%.

In Denmark the most common practice is to always stimulate with the boar together with a complete 5 point pattern of stimulation carried out by the inseminator.

The most relevant genetic defects of the skin are epitheliogenesis imperfecta, pitryisis rosea and malignant melanoma. Recent data suggest an increase of the melanoma incidence in Duroc bred, incidences of 2.60% and 0.62% have been found in two Duroc nucleus herds.