SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NCERA57 : Swine Reproductive Physiology
- Period Covered: 06/20/2025 to 07/08/2026
- Date of Report: 09/01/2026
- Annual Meeting Dates: 07/09/2026 to 07/10/2026
Participants
David J. Miller (Chair), Illinois, University of Illinois; Karl Kerns (Secretary), Iowa, Iowa State University; Claire Stenhouse (incoming Secretary), Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University; Jason W. Ross (Administrative Advisor and Chair, Department of Animal Science), Iowa, Iowa State University; Kamilah Grant, USDA-NIFA Representative; Timothy J. Safranski, Missouri, University of Missouri; Michal Zigo, Missouri, University of Missouri; Jay S. Johnson, Missouri, University of Missouri; Jeremy R. Miles, Nebraska, USDA-ARS, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center; Lea A. Rempel, Nebraska, USDA-ARS, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center; Jean M. Feugang, Mississippi, Mississippi State University; Brett R. White, Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
July 9, 2026: The annual meeting was hosted virtually via Teams by Iowa State University and was called to order by David Miller (Chair). Jason Ross, Administrative Advisor and Chair of the Iowa State University Department of Animal Science, opened with a host department overview. Station reports followed from Jay Johnson (Missouri), Brett White (Nebraska), Lea Rempel and Jeremy Miles (USDA-ARS-USMARC), Michal Zigo (Missouri), and Jay Johnson (Missouri). Kamilah Grant provided the USDA-NIFA update. The business meeting reconvened at 1:00 pm Central and addressed membership, the 2027 annual meeting and Biennial Symposium, and officer succession. Membership. The committee discussed recruitment in response to recent attrition and agreed that maintaining membership remains a priority. Potential new academic members were discussed. Potential industry participants were discussed as well. Members agreed that industry representation would bring valuable perspective. 2027 Annual Meeting. The committee agreed that Iowa State University will host the next NCERA57 meeting, with a proposed tentative arrival on Monday, the annual meeting Tuesday morning, and the Biennial Symposium Tuesday afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. The Tuesday preceding Memorial Day weekend was tentatively selected to avoid a conflict with the International Conference on Pig Reproduction. Biennial Symposium. The committee settled on a continuing theme of precision technologies in swine reproduction, with emphasis on artificial intelligence, precision livestock farming, sensors, automation, gene editing, and predictive analytics. The symposium planning committee will consist of Claire Stenhouse, Jeremy Miles, and Dave Miller, with local host and administrative participation from Karl Kerns and Jason Ross. Officer Succession. Claire Stenhouse was identified as the incoming Secretary, progressing to President under the committee's officer rotation. New Business. No additional new business was presented. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Karl C. Kerns, 2026 Secretary, NCERA57 Swine Reproductive Physiology
Accomplishments
For the FY2026 reporting period, the NCERA57 committee produced 25 multistation outputs associated with swine reproductive physiology, comprising 15 peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter, and nine abstracts and professional presentations. Station reports were received from Illinois (University of Illinois), Iowa (Iowa State University), Mississippi (Mississippi State University), Missouri (University of Missouri), Nebraska (University of Nebraska-Lincoln and USDA-ARS, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center), and Pennsylvania (The Pennsylvania State University), with participating collaborations extending to Purdue University, Texas A&M University, the University of Maryland, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Extremadura. The committee continues five active multistation extramural grants, two from NIH and three from USDA-AFRI-NIFA. Work this period concentrated on oviductal regulation of sperm survival and fertilization, boar sperm function and fertility prediction, GnRH-II and kisspeptin control of gonadotropin secretion and gamete function, seasonal and heat stress effects on gestating sows and on boars, utero-placental nutrient transport and conceptus development, and the application of precision technologies to swine reproduction. The committee also agreed that Iowa State University will host the 2027 annual meeting and the next Biennial Symposium, with a working theme of precision technologies in swine reproduction, and began speaker recruitment.
Impacts
- Objectives 2, 3, and 4. Heat stress lowers basal maintenance cost in gestating gilts and sows, so limit-fed females under heat load retain the surplus as back fat rather than allocating it to the fetus. Current NRC maintenance estimates therefore overstate requirements under heat load, and summer gestation feeding programs built on them misallocate feed. A commercial pork production system has increased gestation barn ventilation capacity on the basis of this work, and a comparative slaughter study across four heat loads in early and late gestation is under way to quantify the adjustment needed. Indicator: producer-initiated facility change, already realized at one production system, with further adoption tracked through cooperator barns entering the study (Missouri, Purdue, the Federal University of Vicosa, and industry partners).
- Objectives 1, 3, and 4. Boar studs dose and cull on sperm motility and morphology, neither of which predicted fertilization outcome across 20 boars and 60 inseminations. Capacitation-induced zinc ion flux and plasma membrane remodeling did, giving studs the first dose-level test tied to fertilization rather than to appearance. Illinois further established that boars whose sperm lack PKDREJ, a protein that binds oviductal glycans, are completely infertile despite normal sperm viability, motility, and morphology, direct evidence that a boar can pass every standard semen test and still fertilize nothing. Related work defined how zinc governs membrane lipid remodeling during capacitation, showed that transient withdrawal of energy substrate accelerates capacitation within 30 to 60 minutes with recovery on substrate reintroduction, and established that flow cytometric sorting alters capacitation and increases polyspermy, with catch media composition controlling sperm recovery. Together these define the handling conditions under which a semen dose retains fertilizing capacity. Anticipated benefit is fewer failed inseminations, better sire selection, and longer usable dose life in a sow herd bred almost entirely by artificial insemination. Indicator: uptake of biomarker-based screening by commercial boar studs, tracked through stud collaborations, service requests, and licensing of the associated invention disclosure (Iowa, USDA-ARS, Missouri, and Illinois).
- Objectives 5 and 6. The committee's methods reach the industry primarily through the people trained in them. Member stations completed at least six graduate degrees during the reporting period (Iowa three, Pennsylvania two, Nebraska one) and delivered an international graduate course on functional sperm biology and emerging technologies in fertility reaching 72 students across 15 contact hours, alongside extension articles and invited presentations to producer and boar stud audiences. Cross-station doctoral advisory committees placed a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student under co-mentorship at the University of Missouri on the boar heat stress program. Indicator: placement of graduates into swine industry and academic reproductive physiology positions, and extension article readership [stations to supply figures] (Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania).
Grants, Contracts & Other Resources Obtained
Multi-station Funded Grants (Active):
NIH, R01HD095841, "Accumulation, Storage, and Release of Sperm in the Oviduct." Miller1, D. (PD), Prather2, R., Lee2, K. (1University of Illinois; 2University of Missouri)
NIH, R21, 2024 to 2027, $407,803, "Respiratory distress in hypophosphatasia: etiology, functional consequences and rescue." Gaddy1, D. (PD), Stenhouse2, C. (Co-I). (1Texas A&M University; 2Penn State)
USDA-AFRI-NIFA Grant #2021-67015-34416, $500,000, Jul 1, 2021 to Jun 30, 2026, "Influence of Maternal and Embryonic Extracellular Vesicles on the Initiation of Porcine Conceptus Elongation." Pannier1, A.K. (PD), Miles2, J.R. (Co-PD), Rempel2, L.A. (1University of Nebraska-Lincoln; 2USDA, ARS, USMARC)
USDA-AFRI-NIFA Grant #2022-08916, $999,618, May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2027, "Identifying AMR gene reservoirs and bacterial host-AMR gene associations to identify bacterial host range of AMR genes in swine production systems." Fernando1, S., Burkey1, T., Miller1, P., Schmidt2, A., Anderson2, C., Oliver3, W., Rempel3, L., Wells3, J. (1University of Nebraska-Lincoln; 2Iowa State University; 3USDA, ARS, USMARC)
USDA-AFRI-NIFA Grant #2023-67015-39451, $650,000, May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2026, "Enhancing boar fertility in the face of climate change through the mitigation of in utero heat stress." Desaulniers1, A.T. (PD), Lents2, C., White1, B., Brito3, L., Johnson4, J. (1University of Nebraska-Lincoln; 2USDA, ARS, USMARC; 3Purdue University; 4University of Missouri)
Publications
Basic Science and Technology
8. Halloran, K.M., Stenhouse, C. 2025. Key biochemical pathways during pregnancy in livestock: mechanisms regulating uterine and placental development and function. Reprod. Fertil. 6. (University of Kentucky; Penn State)
9. Johnson, G.A., Minela, T., Seo, H., Bazer, F.W., Burghardt, R.C., Wu, G., Pohler, K.G., Stenhouse, C., Cain, J.W., Seekford, Z.K., Soffa, D.R. 2025. Conceptus elongation, implantation, and early placental development in species with central implantation: pigs, sheep, and cows. Biomolecules 15. (Texas A&M University; Penn State; University of Maryland)
10. Stenhouse, C., Halloran, K.M., Hoskins, E.C., Moses, R.M., Newton, M.G., Sah, N., Wolpo, Y.E., Tyree, M.F., Seo, H., Johnson, G.A., Wu, G., Bazer, F.W. 2025. Characterization of the expression of XPR1 in utero-placental tissues. Reproduction 169. (Penn State; Texas A&M University; University of Maryland; University of Kentucky)
11. Vyzourek, B.T., Anderson, D., Skrabal, L., Humphrey, C.E., Romero, E., Schweiger, B., Kievit, F., Miles, J.R., Pannier, A.K. 2025. Systematic characterization of mammalian extracellular vesicles using nano-flow cytometry. Extracell. Vesicle 6. Article 100098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vesic.2025.100098. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC) Boar Performance
12. Desaulniers, A.T., Ross, C.E., Cederberg, R.A., Ebrecht, M.A., Lovercamp, K.W., Lents, C.A., White, B.R. 2025. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone II and its receptor regulate motility, morphology, and kinetics of porcine spermatozoa in vitro. Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 361:114653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2024.114653. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC)
13. Oladejo, E.O., Gruhot, T.R., Park, S., Ishak, G.M., Mote, B.E., Liao, S.F., Feugang, J.M. 2025. Dietary arginine supplementation modulates the proteome of boar seminal plasma. Animals 15(4):555. (Mississippi State University; University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
14. Rodriguez, I., Keller, A., Jennett, L., Johnson, M., Shofner, I., Mahmood, M., Redel, B., Kerns, K. 2026. Capacitation-induced zinc ion flux and sperm plasma membrane remodeling predict porcine in vitro fertilization cleavage success. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 93(1):e70085. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrd.70085. (Iowa State University; USDA-ARS)
15. Rodriguez, I., Weide, T., Grote, C.E., Keller, A., Bittencourt, C., Schoelerman, E., Shofner, I., Keating, A.F., Redel, B.K., Kerns, K. 2026. Effects of fluorescence-activated cell sorting on boar sperm motility subpopulations and in vitro embryo development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 93(6):e70123. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrd.70123. (Iowa State University; USDA-ARS)
16. Shofner, I., Mills, K., Weide, T., Breitzman, M.W., Kerns, K. 2026. Zinc regulation of lipidome remodeling during boar sperm capacitation. J. Anim. Sci. 104:skag009. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag009. (Iowa State University; USDA-ARS) Sow and Gilt Performance
17. Ahern, D.F., Wilson, K.E., Wijesena, H.R., Ross, C.E., Elsken, D.H., Florez, J.M., Martins, K., Beltramo, M., Sonstegard, T.S., Cushman, R.A., White, B.R., Lents, C.A. 2026. Gonadotropin secretion and ovarian response of KISS1 knockout gilts treated with hormone analogs activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Biol. Reprod. 114:185-201. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioaf174. (USDA-ARS-USMARC; University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
18. Dong, Y., Song, Z., Codling, J.R., Rohrer, G.A., Miles, J.R., Sharma, S., Brown-Brandl, T.M., Zhang, P., Noh, H. 2025. Robust piglet nursing behavior monitoring through multimodal fusion of computer vision and ambient floor vibration. Comput. Electron. Agric. 238. Article 110804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2025.110804. (USDA-ARS-USMARC; University of Illinois; Stanford University)
19. Lopez, A.N., Olivarez, M.A., Stenhouse, C., Moses, R.M., Newton, M.G., Sah, N., Seo, H., Cain, J., Lefevre, C., Ross, A., Ryan, P., Wiegert, J.G., et al. 2025. Effects of dietary supplementation of creatine on fetal development in gilts at d 60 and d 90 of gestation. J. Anim. Sci. Biotechnol. 16. (Texas A&M University; Penn State; University of Maryland)
20. Reis, T.R.L., Lopes-Ferreira, J.V., Guerra, K.B., da Silva, L.A.B., Stenhouse, C., Ashworth, C.J., Bloise, E., Chiarini-Garcia, H., Almeida, F.R.C.L. de. 2025. The structure of the porcine uterine-conceptus interface is associated with gestational day, fetal size and sex. Domest. Anim. Endocrinol. 90. (Penn State; University of Edinburgh; Federal University of Minas Gerais)
21. Sah, N., Stenhouse, C., Halloran, K.M., Moses, R.M., Newton, M.G., Seo, H., Cain, J.W., Lefevre, C.M., Johnson, G.A., Wu, G., Bazer, F.W. 2025. Effect of gestational age and fetal sex on metabolism of creatine by uteri, placentae, and fetuses of pigs. Biol. Reprod. (Penn State; Texas A&M University; University of Maryland; University of Kentucky)
22. Stenhouse, C., Sah, N., Halloran, K.M., Moses, R.M., Newton, M.G., Cain, J.W., Seo, H., Wu, G., Johnson, G.A., Bazer, F.W. 2025. Characterization of TNSALP expression and activity in porcine utero-placental tissues. Reprod. Fertil. 6:e250056. (Penn State; Texas A&M University; University of Maryland; University of Kentucky) Abstracts/Posters/Professional Presentations
23. McAnally, B.E., Byrd, M.K.H., Musa, J., Brito, L.F., Johnson, J.S., Desaulniers, A.T. 2025. In utero heat stress alters testis development and circulating cytokine profiles in pre-pubertal boars. J. Anim. Sci. 103(Suppl. 1):46-47. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaf102.051. (University of Missouri; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Purdue University)
24. McAnally, B.E., Ross, C.E., Ahern, D.F., Byrd, M.K.H., Musa, J., White, B.R., Lents, C.A., Brito, L.F., Johnson, J.S., Desaulniers, A.T. 2026. In utero heat stress and genomic selection for heat tolerance alter seminal plasma metabolite profiles associated with semen quality. J. Anim. Sci. 104(Suppl. 3):211. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag107.231. (University of Missouri; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC; Purdue University)
25. McAnally, B.E., Ross, C.E., Ahern, D.F., Byrd, M.H., Musa, J., Else-Keller, A., Kerns, K., White, B.R., Lents, C.A., Brito, L.F., Johnson, J.S., Desaulniers, A.T. 2026. Effects of in utero heat stress and genomic selection for heat tolerance on semen quality and sperm physiology in boars. Proceedings of the Society for the Study of Reproduction Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana. (University of Missouri; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC; Purdue University; Iowa State University)
26. McAnally, B.E., Ahern, D.F., Byrd, M.H., Musa, J., White, B.R., Lents, C.A., Brito, L.F., Johnson, J.S., Desaulniers, A.T. 2025. Effects of in utero heat stress and genomic selection for improved heat tolerance on pubertal development and breeding potential of boars. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. (University of Missouri; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC; Purdue University)
27. McAnally, B.E., Ross, C.E., Ahern, D.F., Byrd, M.H., Musa, J., White, B.R., Lents, C.A., Brito, L.F., Johnson, J.S., Desaulniers, A.T. 2025. In utero heat stress and genomic selection for heat tolerance impact the boar seminal plasma metabolome. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium on Reproductive and Developmental Sciences. (University of Missouri; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC; Purdue University)
28. Rodriguez, I., Weide, T., Grote, C.E., Albin, L., Keller, A., Schoelerman, E., Shofner, I., Keating, A.F., Redel, B., Kerns, K. 2026. Flow cytometric sorting alters subpopulations of boar sperm motility and increases polyspermy during in vitro fertilization. Proceedings of the Society for the Study of Reproduction Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Iowa State University; USDA-ARS)
29. Ross, C.E., Desaulniers, A.T., Lents, C.A., White, B.R. 2025. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone II and its receptor act through theca cells of porcine preovulatory follicles to influence follicular development. J. Anim. Sci. 103(Suppl. 1):55. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC)
30. Ross, C.E., Ahern, D.F., Qiu, H., Bartol, S., Miles, J.R., Lents, C.A., Bagnell, C.A., Desaulniers, A.T. 2026. Lactocrine programming by early-life colostrum intake shapes testicular development in neonatal boars. Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; USDA-ARS-USMARC)
31. Zigo, M., Martin Hidalgo, D., Kerns, K., Gervasi, M.G., Sutovsky, P. 2026. Transient boar sperm starvation accelerates capacitation associated changes during porcine sperm in vitro capacitation. Proceedings of the Society for the Study of Reproduction Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana. (University of Missouri; Iowa State University) Book Chapters
32. Zigo, M., Kerns, K., Sutovsky, P. 2025. Methods of mammalian in vitro sperm capacitation to study sperm physiology. In: Spermatogenesis: Methods and Protocols. Methods Mol. Biol., pp. 229-240. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-4698-4_13. (University of Missouri; Iowa State University)