Abstracts - Genetics and reproduction

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...

The results of this study show opportunities to reduce harmful biting behaviours in pigs.

The possibility of planning the production level has a special importance for AI stations, and its inaccuracy should be minimized by eliminating the factors differentiating the quantity and quality of the ejaculate.

It is expected to improve the genetic progress of shoulder lesions and body condition score.

The possible mechanism of vitamin D action on boar performance was explored.

A genome-wide association study was performed to identify quantitative trait loci for SLP-related traits. A total of five genome-wide suggestive significant single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified.

This study was conducted to evaluate the underlying physiological changes during heat stress and the effect of betaine supplementation in lactating sows.

The results of this study provide clinical information on how to reduce seminal shedding of type 1 PRRSV in boars using type 1 PRRSV-modified live vaccine.

The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of porcine oocytes exposure to oviduct fluid before in vitro fertilization, during in vitro fertilization and during in vitro fertilization in combination with heparin.

The effects of infection by E. coli were dependent of both bacterial load and storage period, whereas the effects of C. perfringens were mainly dependent on the bacterial load.