Minitub do Brasil: Symposium on Swine Reproduction at SINSUI Conference

Minitube’s Swine Reproduction Satellite Symposium is one of the main events of the Brazilian swine industry. Its 8th edition was carried out again by Minitub do Brasil on May 21, 2019. The event was part of the XII SINSUI - International Symposium on Swine Industry, promoted by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and held in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The SINSUI congress was attended by approximately 600 participants from different countries and offered a broad variety of scientific topics related with swine veterinary medicine and husbandry and covering the fields of production, reproduction and health.

The Minitube pre-symposium on the first day of the congress focused on technical and scientific aspects of swine reproduction and was visited by a record number of veterinarians, animal scientists, students and producers. The program started with an introduction and welcome note by Alexandre Marchetti, director of Minitub do Brasil. Dr. Marchetti dedicated the symposium to Minitube's Mexican colleague, Dr. Esli Tapia, veterinarian and swine reproduction specialist, who tragically lost his life in a car accident in february.

Paulo Bennemann, professor of the University UNOESC in Santa Catarina, introduced the speakers and guided through the presentations and discussions. In the first presentation, Robert Knox from the University of Illinois, USA, outlined the physiologic aspects of heat stress in pigs and its consequences on reproduction performance. In his talk, he reviewed the results of a number of research projects and explained evolutionary and physiologic aspects of this complex topic that has an important economic impact on the industry. The following presentation by Dagmar Waberski from the Veterinary University in Hannover, Germany, dealt with the role of seminal plasma in refrigerated porcine semen. She guided through a number of recent trials performed by her research group with partially surprising results and conclusions: seminal plasma can have an adverse effect on the longevity of preserved porcine semen. The third scientist of this symposium, Martin Schulze from the Institute for Reproduction in Farm Animals in Schönow, Germany, presented results of studies about the effect of transport and storage conditions of boar semen, and discussed norms for minimum quality parameters. In the following lively discussion, the three scientists responded questions from the audience.

The second part of the symposium was a novelty in the sector, a roundtable discussion of representatives of three pig-breeding companies with main focus on the genetic transfer through semen doses in the Brazilian market. The invited speakers were: Nevton Brun from Agroceres PIC, Diego Alkmin from DB (Danbred) and Marcos Lopes from Topigs Norsvin. They had the opportunity to present the vision of each company as well as the most important aspects of their products and services. In the following roundtable discussion, the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions to all three companies about any aspect of their work. A number of topics, like comparability of genetic values, biosecurity and contingency measures and practical aspects of semen delivery were discussed intensely.

The symposium was found to be very interesting by the participants. Minitube will therefore continue to offer this format of a strictly technical contribution to the SINSUI congress, adding market issues and future trends. The 2020 event will take place again in Porto Alegre, from March 30 to April 2.
Minitub do Brasil: Symposium on Swine Reproduction at SINSUI Conference