Abstract
Simple SummaryThe swine industry is constantly looking for efficiency improvement, especially focusing on the artificial insemination (AI) process. One of the trends in AI centers is to maximize the number of doses obtained from one ejaculate. Seminal doses are usually prepared with the sperm-rich fraction or the whole ejaculate, but further studies are needed to understand how to prepare them properly. Thus, this study aims to analyze how accumulative ejaculate fractions may influence sperm storage, AI performance, and offspring. The results indicate that the presence of all ejaculate fractions within seminal doses does not affect either sperm quality or AI performance and offspring health. Therefore, this study highlights the possibility to use the bulk ejaculate for seminal dose preparation, leading to successful AI. Additionally, it results in a more time-efficient preparation of a greater number of seminal doses providing an economic advantage.Boar ejaculate is released in several well-characterized fractions, differing in terms of sperm concentration, seminal plasma volume, and composition. However, the inclusion of the last part of the ejaculate for artificial insemination (AI) purposes is still under debate due to its controversial effects. Thus, there is a need to study the potential synergistic impact of the different ejaculate fractions. We aimed to evaluate the effect of accumulative ejaculate fractions on sperm conservation, AI performance, and offspring health. Ejaculates (n = 51) were collected and distributed as follows: F1: sperm-rich fraction; F2: sperm-rich + intermediate fractions; F3: sperm-rich + intermediate + poor fractions. Each group was diluted in a commercial extender, packaged in seminal doses (2000 × 106 sperm/60 mL), and stored at ~16 °C. On day 3 of conservation, sperm were analyzed and used for AI (n = 174). High sperm quality was observed after storage without a significant difference between the groups (p > 0.05). Moreover, no differences were obtained for AI performance (pregnancy and farrowing rates, and litter size; p > 0.05) and offspring health (growth and blood analysis; p > 0.05). Conclusively, the presence of all ejaculate fractions within the seminal doses does not impair the reproductive performance, reporting important economic savings according to the economic model included here.
Highlights
The porcine reproduction industry uses artificial insemination (AI) as the method to achieve fertilization
The present study aims to evaluate the effect of accumulative fractions of the ejaculate in seminal doses on in vitro sperm quality during conservation, in vivo reproductive performance after AI in field conditions, and offspring analysis
Having an estimation of six ejaculate collections per boar/month, the use of F3 had an increase of seminal dose production of 24.16% per month compared to F1, while the use of F2 supposed an increase of 11.18%
Summary
The porcine reproduction industry uses artificial insemination (AI) as the method to achieve fertilization. This fact implies the preparation of seminal doses from ejaculates of selected boars, which involves different steps, such as ejaculate collection, semen dilution, sperm quality control, packaging, distribution, and storage [1]. The poor fraction is characterized by a lower number of sperm and high content of seminal plasma (watery aspect) [1,3]. Between the rich and poor fraction, there is a transition phase called the intermediate fraction in which the aspect is of a grayish color. A gel fraction (tapioca) is expelled progressively during the intermediate fraction and is always discarded from ejaculate collection
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