Abstract
A marker indicative of the fertility potential of replacement gilts early in development would decrease culling rates in the sow herd, improve sow herd reproductive efficiency, and reduce production costs. The objective of this study was to determine if vaginal lipid profiles at 21 d postnatal (PN) could predict sow reproductive performance. Vaginal swabs of the anterior vagina were taken at 21 ± 4 d PN from gilts born on a commercial sow production facility for lipidomic analysis. Animals were followed prospectively for 2 yr and assigned to reproductive performance categories based on the observation of estrus or piglets weaned per sow per year (PSY) across two farrowings. Lipids were extracted from cellular material collected with swabs taken from high fertility (HF; n = 28; ≥26 PSY) and infertile (IF; n = 34; no estrus, no pregnancy) animals, and multiple reaction monitoring profiling was used for lipidome analysis. The relative abundance of arachidonic acid (C20:4) and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6) was lower (P < 0.05) in IF gilts than HF gilts, whereas the abundance of the free fatty acids such as cerotic (C26:0), ximenic (C26:1), and nonadecanoic (C19:0) acids was greater (P < 0.05) in IF gilts. Additionally, eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5), a precursor of prostaglandins, was higher (P < 0.05) in IF gilts. The perspective of having a panel of lipids captured with vaginal swabs at weaning that can predict the reproductive efficiency of gilts shows promise and warrants future research in this area.
Highlights
A marker indicative of fertility potential of replacement gilts early in development would decrease culling rates in the sow herd, improve sow herd reproductive efficiency, and reduce production costs
Lipids were extracted from cellular material collected with swabs taken from high fertility (HF; n = 28; ≥26 PSY) and infertile (IF; n = 34; no estrus, no pregnancy) animals and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) profiling was used for lipidome analysis
Transcriptome data were searched for peroxisomal related genes, and we found that peroxisomal biogenesis factor 5 like (PEX5L), acyl-coenzyme A 3 (ACOX3), peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARα), and arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase (ALOX15) were numerically, but not significantly, higher in gilts that nursed sow’s milk versus replacer-fed gilts
Summary
A marker indicative of fertility potential of replacement gilts early in development would decrease culling rates in the sow herd, improve sow herd reproductive efficiency, and reduce production costs. A common method to measure reproductive efficiency is number of piglets weaned per sow per year (PSY) [1,2,3]. In 2018, the average PSY for US sow herds was 25.3 [4] Another way to measure farm reproductive efficiency is sow replacement rate. The annual removal rates of animals from herds averaged 45% across the US in 2018, with culling primarily due to poor reproductive performance. The high culling rate of sows from herds is due, in part, to the lack of the ability of the producer to identify reproductively sound gilts early in life
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