Boar Differences In Artificial Insemination Outcomes: Can They Be Minimized?

In Western countries, where pig breeding and production are intensive, there is a documented variability in fertility between farms with boar-related parameters only accounting to 6% of this total variation of in vivo fertility. Such low boar effect could be a result of the rigorous control of sires and ejaculates yielding AI-doses exerted by the highly specialized AI-centres that monopolize the market. However, some subfertile boars pass through these rigorous controls and consequently reach the AI-programmes. Here, we discuss why testing young boars for chromosomal defects, sperm nuclear chromatin integrity and in vitro fertilizing ability can be discriminative and economically sound for removing these less fertile boars. Alongside, we discuss why boars differ in the ability of their sperm to tolerate cryopreservation or sex sorting.