Many advances have been made in the assisted reproduction for horses in recent years. Artificial insemination is a widely practised breeding method in most sport horse breeds and most countries. This has resulted in such terms as “mail order” semen and “sexed” semen. More advanced technologies such as Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), Deep Uterine Insemination (DUI) with low dose inseminations are more recent techniques. We have observed that the quality of the sperm is very varying from stallion to stallion and this presents a problem to breeders and veterinarians around the world. And we know that some specific stallions are valuable even though they have bad sperm quality. By separating the sperm through a density gradient prior to freezing, inseminating, or sexing the semen, we can not only eliminate all the bad quality spermatozoa and therefore decrease the size of the insemination doses but also remove reactive oxygen species, most bacteria and many viruses. This significantly increases the survival and therefore the fertilising potential of the sperm.
References
Semen processing for the subfertile stallion Dickson D Varner et al Journal of Veterinary Science, Vol 28, no 11 (2008) “From these data, one can surmise that the EquiPure™ centrifugation procedure considerably improved the seminal quality of this stallion, as measures of sperm-motion characteristics and sperm morphology were enhanced with this procedure”
Use of a silane-coated particle solution to enhance the quality of ejaculated semen in stallions D.D Varner et al 49th Annual Convention for the American Association fo Equine Practitioners, 2003, New Orleans “This study demonstrated that use of a proprietary silanated silica particle density gradient (EquiPureä) can improve semen quality in stallions, as determined by measures of both spermatozoal motility and spermatozoal morphology”
Insemination Doses: how low can we go? S P Brinsko Theriogenology 66(2006) 543-550 Dept of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 78843-4475, USA “…conducted breeding trials with two stallions having per-cycle pregnancy rates of <20%and showed improvement in pregnancy rate after their semen was centrifuged through a discontinous density gradient (EquiPure™) to increase the percentage of progressively, morphologically normal sperm. Hysteroscopic insemination with 100µl of extended semen containing 20 x 106 PMS increased the pregnancy rate from 20 to 35% (7/20) for one stallion and transrectally guided deep-horn insemination of 60-150 x 106 PMS in 250 µl resulted in seven of eight mares (87.5%) becoming pregnant for the other horse”
Advanced methods for handling and preparation of stallion semen Loomis et al Anim Reprod Sci. 2006 Feb;91(3-4):237-47 Clinic for Obstetrics and Reproduction, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Heinzelova 55, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia “Therefore, advanced methods for processing and selecting stallion semen provide the clinician with valuable tools for handling poor-quality semen or for obtaining spermatozoa for assisted reproduction procedures”
Effective removal of equine arteritis virus from stallion semen Geraghty, R.M. Equine Veterinary Journal, Volume 38, Number 3, May 2006 , pp. 224-229(6) “Results: Virus-free sperm preparations were obtained using the double sperm processing technique. The 'swim-up' step is apparently required to ensure complete virus removal. Conclusions: The double semen processing technique is potentially a useful and simple tool for the removal of EAV from the semen of shedding stallions” effect of density-gradient centrifugation on quality and recovery rate of equine spermatozoa A.J Edmont, DD Varner et al. Anim Reprod Sci. Issues 3-4, 2008 September; page 318 Dept of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 78843-4475, USA “The sperm EquiPure™ centrifugation technique has been used successfully with three commercial breeding stallions in 2007” (test of different tube sizes)
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