Introduction
The use of artificial insemination (AI) in the pig has had a major impact on genetic improvement in the swine industry over the last 40 years. However, the overall production efficiency of the breeding herd is highly dependent on the reproductive capacity (fertility) of the boars used for breeding and the genetic merit of the boars for the performance of terminal line off spring. Given the polygamous structure of swine production, poor quality boars will affect the reproductive outcome of numerous females.
In the case of AI this could be thousands of females. Although ejaculates collected for use in AI are subjected to standard semen analysis in commercial boar studs, the effectiveness of these evaluations is low compared to other food-animal species. The following discussion of the need to use more advanced AI technologies to improve the impact of genetically elite boars is based on three assumptions:
- Employing the use sub-fertile boars and low quality ejaculates reduces production efficiency.
- The use of pooled semen from poorly defined males breaks the link between known genetic value of individual boars and the paternity of progeny produced.
- The excessive number of sperm used per litter born (probably over 9 billion sperm using current practices), and hence the high numbers of boars needed for semen production, reduces the genetic impact of the best boars.
Collectively, these inefficiencies in AI use in the pork industry represent a major disadvantage to pork producers in a global food-animal marketplace. Given the recent advances in genomics technologies, our ability to identify boars with even greater potential EBVs will increase and the potential to optimize the use of these boars in efficient pork production systems will increase. Available estimates suggests that advanced AI technologies can increase the genetic value of every pig produced by as much as $1.00.
For full presentation see attached pdf
