The 80% of boars for artificial insemination will follow ANPSTAND protocols in order to gain quality, innovation and sustainability.
On September 9, the “1st GO ANPSTAND Seminar” took place, of the ANPSTAND operative group. In it, all the members of the project have been able to share the progress made since 2019 and the lines of work until the conclusion in 2021.
The ANPSTAND Operative Group, formed by selected pig breeders, insemination centers and researchers, promotes the creation of its own standard to improve pig semen quality and biosecurity. Its objective is to define and implement a standard of seminal quality for the boad studs in Spain, which allows unifying the procedures and characteristics that must comply with the doses elaborated, and thus continue to lead Spanish pig production worldwide.
The Spanish swine industry, besides unifying these procedures and criteria under a common standard of semen quality, aims to specify the minimum characteristics to be met by the doses produced by insemination centres equivalent to other leading countries in the field, such as the BPEX AI Standard in the United Kingdom and the German AI Standard in Germany.
For the execution of this innovative project of the GO ANPSTAND, a grant of €575,833.91 has been granted, co-financed by the European Fund for Rural Development and MAPA (20%).
The 80% of the boars for artificial insemination (AI) in Spain are covered by this ANPSTAND Operative Group. In 2019, the artificial insemination centers for pigs had 8,177 boars, of which 6,458 are hosted by this Operative Group, according to data provided by Adoración Llorente, Technical Director of the National Association of Select Pigs ANPS.
The 10 protocols that contemplate the measures to be taken in the facilities are: animal management, biosecurity, animal welfare and health and hygiene, and work processes; semen collection, ejaculate processing and dose conservation and distribution, quality control and data traceability.
In addition, an Environment Protocol is established as a sign of the strong commitment to sustainability of the industry, with the aim, among other measures, of optimizing the management of natural resources and reducing emissions and environmental impact. These protocols are the minimum to be complied with in the centres in order to guarantee the best conditions of the animals, to promote good practices in the elaboration of the pig semen doses and to guarantee their transparency in the audits.
More than 10.5 million doses per year
In Spain, more than 10.5 million insemination doses were performed in 2019. The aim is for all of them to follow common standards that will make it possible to improve competitiveness.
Swine artificial insemination has many advantages such as an intense sanitary control, a rapid diffusion of genetic progress, optimization of reproductive management and a reduction of the economic costs of farms. The benefits begin in the boar studs and farms, which increase their competitiveness, and have an impact on the economic development of the rural areas in which they are established and, therefore, the whole of society.
Magapor, as a member of this group, we are proud to be able to collaborate in this project that guarantees the quality in the swine artificial insemination process, thus constituting a clear commitment of the sector.
For more information: www.anps.es/
