Fig. 2

Red blood cell (RBC) and iron metabolism parameters in wild boar and PLW females with litters of different sizes. Females were allocated into four experimental groups: (i) Wild boar, n = 6; (ii) PLW small litter after embryo transfer (ET), n = 7; (iii) PLW large litter after ET, n = 5; (iv) PLW large litter after artificial insemination (AI), n = 6. RBC indices were determined for females from each group 24 h after farrowing: (A) Red blood cell (RBC) count; (B): Hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration; (C) Hematocrit (Hct) value; (D) Blood plasma iron concentration; (E) Blood plasma ferritin concentration; (F) Blood plasma hepcidin-25 concentration; (G) Placental non-heme iron content; (H) Total iron content in the colostrum. Within each box, horizontal lines denote median values. Boxes extend from the 25th to the 75th percentile of each group’s distribution of values. Vertical extending lines denote adjacent values (i.e. the most extreme values within a 1.5 interquartile range of the 25th and 75th percentile for each group). Different letters indicate experimental groups between which statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found