208 Molecular mechanisms through which heat stress compromises reproduction in pigs

Abstract

Abstract Seasonal variations in environmental temperatures impose added stress on domestic species bred for economically important production traits. These heat-mediated stressors vary on a seasonal, daily, or spatial scale, and negatively impact behavior and reduce feed intake and growth rate, which inevitably leads to reduced herd productivity. The seasonal infertility observed in domestic swine is primarily characterized by depressed reproductive performance manifesting as delayed puberty onset, reduced farrowing rates, and extended weaning-to-estrus intervals. Understanding the effects of heat stress at the organismal, cellular, and molecular level is a prerequisite to identifying mitigation strategies that could reduce the economic burden of compromised reproduction. Additionally, hyperthermia experienced in utero influences industry-relevant postnatal phenotypes. Understanding tissue-specific molecular mechanisms through which heat stress confers suppressed reproductive ability is essential to the development of mitigation focused hypothesis driven solutions. This work was supported by the National Pork Board and the Iowa Pork Producers Association.