Reproductive Performance of Native Pulawska and High Productivity Polish Landrace Sows in the Context of Stress During the Period of Early Pregnancy

Experiments revealed that it is necessary to get rid of genotypes RYR1C/T and RYR1T/T because of problems with meat quality and reproduction of gilts and sows. This phenomenon, however, is of individual nature and is characterized by high variability. The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of stressogenic factors in native Pu?awska and high productivity Polish Landrace breed sows during the period of low pregnancy on reproductive performance and maternal behaviour. Sows in the 2nd reproduction cycle were assigned into groups of five animals as follows: control (C) of RYR1 C/C genotype and experimental (E) of RYR1 C/T genotype. In all, 30 Pu?awska breed sows and 30 PL breed sows were analysed. During the early stage of pregnancy (days 42–84), experimental groups were subjected to the action of stressogenic factors: elevated temperature, noisy and rough treatment of sows by service personnel and immobilization stress. The effect of stressogenic factors was referred to the reproductive performance of sows. Pu?awska and PL breed sows from the experimental groups were subjected to the evaluation of maternal traits on the basis of perinatal behaviour determined with the help of an ethogram. Analysis of the results of reproduction and the behaviour of the sows confirmed the higher resistance to stressogenic factors of the Pu?awska breed. The performed analysis of reproduction and behaviour confirmed that heterozygotic genotypes in the RYR1 locus exhibited less advantageous reproduction, which corroborates the hypothesis about a negative impact of the T allele on swine productivity.