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Reproduction in the gilt 6. The effect of various degrees of mature boar contact during rearing on puberty attainment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

Philippa R. Eastham
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough LEI2 5RD
G. W. Dyck
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough LEI2 5RD
D. J. A. Cole
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough LEI2 5RD
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Abstact

Forty-eight Landrace × (Landrace × Large White) gilts were randomly allocated at 70 days of age to each of three rearing treatments: (1) fence-line contact with a mature boar, (2) olfactory/aural contact with a mature boar, (3) no boar contact. At 160 days of age, all gilts were relocated adjacent to a novel mature boar and exposed to full contact with a mature boar for 30 min each day. At the first, second and third oestrus, 16 gilts from each treatment group were mated twice and the reproductive tracts were examined at slaughter 21 days later, to determine ovulation rate and embryo survival. The rearing treatments had no significant effects on the attainment of puberty. Neither rearing treatment nor oestrus of mating had any significant effect on behaviour, sexual receptivity at first service, conception rate, ovulation rate, the number of embryos and embryo survival at 21 days of pregnancy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1986

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References

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