Artificial insemination in pigs, research and developments in The Netherlands, a review Inseminação artificial em suínos, pesquisa e desenvolvimento nos Países Baixos, uma revisão

The fertility results of pig artificial insemination (AI) in The Netherlands are considered to be one of the highest worldwide. More than 98% of the sows in The Netherlands is mated through AI. Sow farmers put great trust in AI and are fully depending on the quality of the product. The Dutch cooperative pig AI centers put large efforts in producing high quality insemination doses as far as semen quality and genetic quality. In this paper the following aspects of AI will be discussed: History of Dutch pig AI, success factors of Dutch pig AI, status of pig AI in the Netherlands, semen production at Dutch pig AI centres and Dutch pig AI research and development results. The emphasis will be put on: effects of semen motility, sperm number and semen age on the fertility results and sources of variation in semen quality. Furthermore a vision of future research and developments will be given in the last paragraph.