The NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PIG REPRODUCTION (ICPR) was held at the Conference Center and University Library in Kortowo II (University Campus), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland between June 9th and 12th 2013.

The meeting, following the tradition begun in 1981 of holding ICPR conferences every four years, provided another excellent opportunity for scientific and social interaction among more than 135 delegates from 18 countries actively involved in most aspects of pig reproduction. Twenty-four invited speakers from eleven countries reviewed the latest advances in pig reproductive biology and the links of this knowledge to implementation in the swine industry; covering the following themes:

• Gametes and embryos, from cryobiology to metabolomics
• Seminal plasma proteomics
• Oocyte & embryo interplay with the surrounding milieu
• Recent developments in porcine AI & ET
• Pregnancy, parturition and the neonate
• Gestation elicited: nutrition and placenta function
• Managing litter survival
• Reproductive biotechnology
• Advancing “-omics” 
• Reproductive selection in practice
• Research & commercial pig reproduction

State-of-the-art lectures by recognized experts in their fields were intermingled with session presentations of the latest developments in pig reproductive biology and with shorter presentations by the younger generation of research colleagues, selected from 13 abstracts from nine countries submitted to the conference.

This is also the Society for Reproduction and Fertility Volume 68.