Biotechnologies of porcine reproduction : from routine techniques to emerging methods

Abstract

Assisted reproduction techniques are currently under strong development in the pig. The scope of this review paper is the description of reproduction-linked biotechnologies, which are currently in wide use in pig breeding (A.I. with liquid, oestrous induction, ultrasono- graphy …), those which are close to being applied in the near future (A.I. with frozen semen, embryo production and cryopreservation, surgical embryo transfer) as well as recent techniques which still require improvement before leading to new developments for the pig industry (sex-sorting sperm, non-surgical transfer of embryos). All these techniques, including those that are already widely used in pig husbandry, are currently encountering fast improvements in terms of success rates. This paper will describe the research axes explored to reach these improvements.