Big data como fonte de rastreamento da produtividade de centrais de produção de sêmen e o efeito da centrifugação e sonicação do diluente de sêmen suíno sobre os parâmetros de congelamento-descongelamento

Abstract

The great expansion and transformation of pig production during the 20th century must be attributed mainly to the use of different technologies in the management of animals in addition to the segmentation of production in sub-areas. One of the sectors that most used different technologies was reproduction. Currently, sires and dams are kept in separate facilities, with the first allocated into boar studs. Such plants are equipped with technologies that intensify the use of automation of the collection and production of doses, which would not be possible without obtaining computerized data for their realization. In addition, studies in which management and productivity characteristics are reported are responsible for identifying both critical points and reference points for the production chain as a whole, which is known as ‘benchmarking’. The first study demonstrated the quantitative and qualitative profile of more than twenty thousand doses of semen produced during one year in eleven Brazilian boar studs in terms of sperm parameters (i.e., concentration, motility, volume, color, etc.) and productivity of the ejaculates collected (i.e., amount of doses produced) in addition to the reasons fordiscarding both the collected ejaculates and the animals housed in the farms. It was also possible to understand some characteristics of the management of the farms in terms of the work routines adopted (i.e., collection days, number of employees, interval between collections, etc.). Finally, in the second study, an innovation in the methodology for obtaining diluent for freezing swine semen was reported: ultracentrifugation, with or without sonication. The ultracentrifugation of the yolk plasma was beneficial for the parameters of sperm kinetics. On the other hand, the application of sonication, with the objective of reducing LDL particles in the diluent, isolated or combined with ultracentrifugation, was deleterious to these same parameters. Therefore, the first study was important to determine the reference points for the commercial production of swine semen in Brazilian plants and the second one provided a feasable and beneficial alternative for freezing boar semen doses.