Eureka! Institutional Repository

The wild boar was domesticated 9,000 years ago and quickly gained particular importance as it relates to the eating habits of various cultures. Today, pigs are still an important source of food animal origin, worldwide. Developments in genetics, technology and farm management methods have launched the global pig production. About one billion pigs are raised each year worldwide and pork represents more than 40% of the consumed red meat. One of the most serious problems associated with breeding pigs is seasonal subfertility. Seasonal subfertility has been described for all continents under a variety of climatic conditions and has been studied by many researchers without a clear causal factor, blaming both the high temperatures observed during the summer period and the photoperiod. The seasonal subfertility of pigs is naturally also observed in Greece, affecting the viability of pig farming. It is a multifactorial and complex problem that is intensified even more due to the climatic conditions that prevail in Greece during the summer months. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of the season on the fertility of pigs, as seasonal subfertility is one of the most important problems facing pig farming today. The study of 3525 inseminations over 5 years in a pig farm in Northern Greece showed thatthe reproductive indices and infertility have a seasonal appearance and are located during the summer and autumn.