Abstracts - Genetics and reproduction

Pigs exposed to in utero heat stress develop a variety of postnatal phenotypes that prevent profitable production, and compromise health, and welfare in commercial production systems.

Neither feeding level nor diet type during the weaning to estrus interval had an impact on sow reproductive performance.

Sexual maturity has a low, yet not negligible, impact on the welfare of heavy female pigs in terms of aggressive behavior and lesions.

The 64 SNV panel is a useful genetic tool to infer purebred or crossbred Iberian origin of live animals, meat and dry-cured products.

Vaccinating against the influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus, can improve reproductive performance in sow herds infected with pandemic influenza A virus.

Lactate dehydrogenase could help predict pork quality variation, while cortisol, alanine amino transferase, and albumin could be useful in prediction of carcass quality.

Cloned boars could be highly effective for proliferation of pigs with desirable characteristics, preservation of genetic resources and risk reduction against epidemic diseases.

Post-cervical artificial insemination doses took less time than cervical doses to reach the desired temperature, but sperm quality was similar for CAI- and PCAI-doses during storage.

Caffeine supplementation of sows receiving progesterone to prevent premature farrowing impaired piglet survival during, and shortly after parturition.

Increased suckling intensity increased litter weight gain but reduced piglet ADG. Following lactations were not negatively affected by increased suckling intensity of the first lactation. Loss of sow body reserves was reduced for the second lactation.

Essential oils may act as antimicrobial agents in seminal doses serving as an alternative to traditional antimicrobials in the face of increasing antimicrobial resistance.

The objective of this study was to develop alternatives to hormonal treatments to synchronize oestrus of gilts.

Melatonin interferes with cultured granulosa cell proliferation and steroidogenesis.

Caffeine positively affected the vitality of the piglets, as indicated by greater vitality scores than that for the control group.

There is a lack of information about progesterone supplementation during early pregnancy regarding swine embryonic development. The objective was to evaluate the effects of progesterone/progestin supplementation from Day 6 of pregnancy on swine reproductive parameters.

The fact that the major phenotypic characteristic of boar spermatozoa, motility, is constrained by time of cryostorage should be considered when building cryobanks of pig semen.

Sperm DNA integrity in semen with good motility and morphology may be an additional prediction parameter for fertility in pigs.

The future design of AI strategies and catheters should take into consideration the morphological variations of the cervix lumen, which will depend on age and parity of the females.

The seminal plasma from the sperm-rich fraction is important for the maintenance of adequate structural and functional characteristics of extended liquid boar semen.

The use of the deep cervical AI technique provides a new AI method as an alternative to cervical insemination and post-cervical artificial insemination for pigs.

Mounting evidence indicates that light irradiation of mammalian spermatozoa (and of other animal species) increases their motility, capacitation and fertilizing ability, without causing any damage on the DNA.

Boars sperm membrane proteins may explain differences in semen cryopreservation success, serving as freezability markers.

Enriching the sow environment and diet during gestation therefore improved sow welfare and reduced piglet mortality at and soon after birth.

Piglet stillbirth was associated with several hematological parameters of the sow, namely hemoglobin concentration, mean cell hemoglobin concentration...