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(238) RESULTS OF ADDING PLATELET ACTIVATING FACTOR (PAF) TO BOAR SEMEN PRIOR TO AI ON LITTER PRODUCTIVITY OF SOWS AND GILTS. Plummer, William 1, Diehl, John 2, Peterman, Kelly 1, Mook, Jennifer2, 1 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA2 Clemson University, Clemson, SC ABSTRACT- Intracytoplasmic sperm injection using PAF treated rabbit sperm resulted in higher pregnancy rates and heavier offspring than from control group does, and other studies showing that PAF improved sperm motility parameters (CASA) suggested that its addition to semen prior to insemination might improve fertility. We tested this at a commercial swine facility beginning in the summer of 2003. Sows and gilts maintained under good management practices were made available for this field trial. From a stock solution of PAF, 3 molar concentrations (treatments A, B, C; 0, 10-7, 10-9M/ml) were made. Each aliquot of treatment solution was dissolved in 1 ml of saline and taken to the farm. Following standard estrus detection procedures all females were inseminated with 80 ml of mixed extended boar semen containing 3 × 109 sperm to which 1 aliquot of treatment solution was added in a double blind manner. Statistical analysis was done on 629 of 1100 females. Adding PAF to semen provided no advantage (P>0.05) regardless of parity, though improvements were indicated in the B group. Gilts were more productive (P<0.05) than sows respectively: TB 12.4±0.6 vs 11.0±0.2, BA 11.5±0.6 vs 9.8±0.2, SB 0.6±0.2 vs 0.8±0.1, and M 0.3±0.2 vs 0.4±0.1. Litter birth weights (LBwt) from 455 litters showed no difference for any treatment averaging 15.9 kg (P>0.05). There was a significant week x treatment interaction. These results suggest that management favored gilts rather than sows. Competitive mating using semen from several boars at a time was the norm. If PAF has an effect only on boars of low fertility, that effect would have been masked. We also did not know the age of the AI semen. Only the top producing house was used for this study, perhaps we should have used the lowest. PAF adheres to plastics other than polypropylene and when PAF was mixed with semen it was in contact with polyethylene until AI. Some PAF could have been removed from the treated semen before it had an effect. Although no definitive treatment effects were found there were indications that something positive had happened. The trial site farm recently stated they wanted us to bring them more PAF because they had not had an average litter size larger than 10 since the study ended. We will follow up with additional study and give further attention to the field trial site. KEY WORDS: platelet activating factor, pig, litter size |
