Duration: 10/01/2009 to 09/30/2014

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Animal agriculture is critical to the vitality, stability, sustainability and overall success of the US economy. Remaining competitive in a global economy requires continued improvement of animal production systems. Key to this improvement is enhancing reproductive efficiency. Reproduction has been found to be the single most important factor leading to profitability in animal agriculture. Numerous advances pioneered or researched by members of NCERA57 or its predecessor, NCR57, have resulted in increases in reproductive efficiency within the pork industry. Some of these advances have included, increased use of artificial insemination, reduced age at puberty, increased litter sizes, and improvement of producers understanding of environmental and genetic effects on reproduction. There still remains many areas in which research conducted by NCERA57 members can increase reproductive efficiency and contribute to increased profitability of pork production. In addition, communication of this research to producers and college students remains a goal of the committee. The goals of NCERA57 are therefore consistent with the priorities of NCRA to develop improved animal production systems that are competitive, profitable and environmentally sound.

New and growing technologies in functional genomics, proteomics, glycomics and bioinformatics are increasingly important in understanding biological processes. Application of these technologies to reproductive processes have and will continue to contribute to rapid improvements in understanding, and novel approaches to control, the reproductive processes in swine. It is becoming increasingly apparent that not only is it important to understand the genes, gene products, and protein function but also the carbohydrate contribution to the cell surface and even the lipids within the membranes. Members of NCERA57 have been involved in this type of research and will continue in the future as this is one of the group's priority research objectives and is tied to the NCRA priority research objective for Genetic Resources Development and Manipulation.

The NCERA57 committee is made up of a broad group of researcher, extension scientists and university teachers. Most members have appointments in more than one of these areas. NCERA57 and it predecessor, NCR57, have had major impacts on understanding and controlling reproductive processes not only in swine (the major emphasis) but also in other species. The annual meeting provides a unique forum for scientific exchange, critique, new and continuing collaboration, and discussion of new theories and alternative interpretations of experimental results. The forum is increasingly important as increased research costs make it essential to develop collaboration, share reagents, techniques and have open scientific discussions, before undertaking expensive research.

In addition to the research conducted by NCERA57 members, the committee has been very successful in communicating research to producers, students and the general public. The committee holds a biennial symposium on current reproductive concerns in the swine industry. These have been held in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The last two had in excess of 60 industry participants in addition to the committee. Numerous undergraduate teaching resources have been developed by members based not only on research related to the science but also success in student learning. Lastly, a website was developed, http://www.ansci.wisc.edu/jjp1/ncera57/index.html, to provide open access to symposium presentations and technical information of interest for educators and producers.

The NCERA57 committee has continued to adapt to changing times, increasing collaboration among its diverse members, providing forums for discussion of research and proposed research projects, forums for industry representatives on research and how it could be utilized in production settings, and development of novel teaching approaches. NCERA57 has been a model of success and will continue this tradition in the future.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

NCERA57 provides a mechanism for a diverse group of researchers, educators and extension specialists all involved in swine reproductive physiology to meet on an annual basis and discuss each individuals current research and its implications for the industry, teaching, extension and scientific advance. This helps to advance each individual station's research but also facilitates the establishment of collaborative research projects among the station participants. For example, Scientists at University of Nebraska, Lincoln and USDA-MARC have established a collaboration to examine the association between polymorphisms within the promoter for the GNRH gene and FSH production in swine. This is resulting in an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the primary determinant of litter size, leading to enhanced prolificacy in swine. A new collaboration involving Wisconsin, Illinois, USDA-MARC, USDA-BARC and North Carolina is investigating novel methods for semen evaluation to predict male fertility investigating sperm zona binding, nuclear condensation during spermatogenesis and sperm nuclear morphology, and mitochondria function in the fresh and cryopreserved sperm. A collaboration between USDA-MARC and USDA-BARC was established to investigate genetics of post-thaw sperm survival. A large collaboration in the development of a USDA-NRI grant proposal on seasonal infertility in swine between Kansas, USDA-BARC, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska was undertaken and although not funded resulted in the development of unique on-line teaching modules for swine production courses. A further mechanism to facilitate the collaboration is the distribution of a CD-rom of the meeting research reports which is sent to each member following the meeting as well as posted on the NCERA57 website . The exchange of information, new research and teaching technology increases the efficiency of efforts at each of the participating stations in the project. Further evidence of collaborations can be found in the attachment on collaborative publications.

In the next five years the committee will focus research on improving boar performance by coordinated and collaborative research on sperm-oocyte-reproductive tract interaction and the role of sperm glycans in these processes, new and novel approaches to semen evaluation, development of protocols for ovulation induction and timing of cryopreserved sperm insemination, and sire dependent effects on embryo development. Improvement of sow and gilt reproductive performance will focus on understanding folliculogenesis, uterine morphogenesis, conceptus growth, and effects of endocrine disruptors on female reproduction, and controlling the timing of puberty to reduce the number of non productive days for replacement females.

A major success of the last project period was the development of biennial symposia that has involved station and industry representatives. The symposia topics have been: 2002 Seasonal Infertility (Nebraska), 2004 Boar Stud Management and A.I. (Iowa), 2006 Reproductive Inefficiency of Small Litter Sizes (North Carolina), and 2008 Sow Longevity (Indiana). In the last symposia, 2008, over 60 industry representatives were present. The purpose of the symposia are to identify current industry problems and potential solutions from the researchers. It is also a critical meeting to allow the stakeholders in the swine industry to meet the researchers. The symposia will continue in the new project with topics decided on at the preceding year's meeting.

Within the last project period an emphasis on the development of teaching materials for both higher education and the swine industry gained importance with development of materials at the University of Wisconsin, Kansas State University and Oklahoma State University. We are continuing the development, implementation and evaluation of these materials, although Oklahoma is no longer a member due to the moving of Dr. Geisert to the University of Missouri.

Although the USDA-NRI program has been discontinued, we will seek to revise and submit a grant proposal to the successor of that program a grant entitled "Seasonal infertility in swine: research and educational goals to enhance the profitability and sustainability of the pork industry". The submission of the proposal, was found important and fundable. Lack of sufficient funds precluded the funding of the grant. The completion and submission of the grant however was an important success that demonstrated the collaboration among the representative stations. It should also be noted that the wording of research priorities in the USDA-NRI reproduction program were taken from NCR57 documents and were part of previous renewal documents.

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

We continue to invite stakeholders, such as swine industry leaders, to attend the annual meeting as well as suggest topics and participate in the biennial conferences. The topics of the biennial symposium are chosen the year in advance to reflect the current interest of the industry in areas for which the committee has expertise to contribute. Some topics under consideration for future symposia concern the distribution of semen, changing demographics and reduced desire for students in Departments of Animal Science to be interested in careers in the swine industry, and methods for utilization of frozen semen in swine production. The NCERA57 website developed under the last project period is hosted by the University of Wisconsin and will continue to be developed as a mechanism to distribute information to stakeholders. We also have a standing invitation for state swine reproductive extension scientists to attend our meetings which provides a mechanism for relevant feedback as to the concerns of the swine industry.

Organization/Governance

The recommended Standard Governance for multistate research activities include the election of a Chair, a Chair-elect, and a Secretary. All officers are to be elected for a three-year term of service. Administrative guidance will be provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a CSREES Representative.

Literature Cited

USDA. 2008. National Agricultural Statistics Service homepage. http://www.nass.usda.gov/


Flowers, W.L. 2004. Biotechnology: Artificial Insemination. In: Encyclopedia of Animal Science. W.G. Pond and A.W. Bell (eds.), Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 130-132.


Flowers, W.L. 2004. Swine: Reproduction Management. In: Encyclopedia of Animal Science. W.G. Pond and A.W. Bell (eds.), Marcell Dekker, Inc., New York, pp. 831-833.


Rohrer, G.A., T.H. Wise, and J.J. Ford. 2006. Deciphering the pig genome to understand gamete production. In: Control of Pig Reproduction VII. C. J. Ashworth and R. R. Kraeling (eds.) Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, U.K., pp. 293-301.


Landers EA, HR Burkin, G Bleck, L Lesley Howell-Skalla, and DJ Miller. 2008. Porcine b1,4galactosyltransferase-I sequence, mapping, and expression. Reprod Domestic Animals. In Press.


Braundmeier AG, Demers JM, Shanks RD, Miller DJ. The relationship of porcine sperm zona-binding ability to fertility. J Anim Sci. 2004 Feb;82(2):452-8.


Collins ED, Flowers WL, Shanks RD, Miller DJ. Porcine sperm zona binding ability as an indicator of fertility.Anim Reprod Sci. 2008 Feb 1;104(1):69-82.

Bass, B.E., R.A. Cederberg, G.A. Mills, C.M. Clay, and B.R. White. 2008. Responsiveness of GnRH receptor and gonadotropin subunit genes to GnRH in lines of swine divergent for ovulation rate. Biol. Reprod. (In Press).


McDonald, E.A., R.A. Cederberg, J.E. Smith, and B.R. White. 2008. Divergent activity of the porcine GnRH receptor gene promoter in aT3-1 cells is partially conferred by nuclear factor (NF)-kB, specificity protein (Sp)1-like, and GATA4 elements. Endocrinology (In Press).


Ford, J.J., S.A. McCoard, T.H. Wise, D.D. Lunstra, and G.A. Rohrer. 2006. Genetic variation in sperm production. In: Control of Pig Reproduction VII. C. J. Ashworth and R. R. Kraeling (eds.) Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, U.K., pp. 99-112.


Collins ED, WL Flowers, RD Shanks, and DJ Miller. 2008. Porcine sperm-zona binding ability as an indicator of fertility. Anim Reprod Sci. 104:69-82.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

IA, IL, IN, MO, MS, NE, WI, WV

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Beltsville Area, Kansas State University, USDA/ARS/U.S. Meat Animal Research Center