Evaluation of reproductive performance and offspring growth performance of somatic cloned pigs

This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between reproductive and genetic properties of cloned pigs and those of donor pigs, and to evaluate the application of somatic cell clone boars in the preservation of excellent genes and production of commercial pigs. Pietrain-Duroc hybrid boars were cloned, and their parameters of semen quality were determined. Reproductive total piglets and live piglets of sows mated with cloned boars and donor boars were compared. Growth performance of offspring of sows mated with cloned boars and donor boars were obtained. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the cloned pigs and the donor boars in various tested indexes as well as their offspring, which indicated that the cloned pigs had normal reproductive properties and retained the excellent genetic properties of the donors and could be applied as excellent boars in production.