Fertility of ewe following intrauterine laparoscopic insemination with frozen-thawed semen

Abstract

Cryopreservation of sperm opening up possibilities for improvement of breeding work due to the rational use of the valuable animals’ genetic potential became the basis for cryobanks of biomaterial, contributed to the widespread, the exchange of gene pool. However, AI with frozen-thawed semen is not widespread in sheep as it is in other domestic species. One reason for this is the low efficiency of frozen-thawed ram semen application. The aim of research was to study the fertilizing ability of frozen-thawed semen using intrauterine laparoscopic insemination. The experiments were carried out in Kazakhstan and Russian Federation. For intrauterine insemination by laparoscopy has been used frozen in straws semen of Polypay, Suffolk (courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), Hampshire, Dorset, Texel, the South African Meat Merino (represented by Animal Breeding Services LTD, New Zealand), and the North Caucasian breeds. During intracervical insemination by frozen semen, the fertility of ewes was 34.4%. When intrauterine insemination using a single detection of sheep on heat, fertilization ranged from 34.7 to 43.7 %, and when using detection of sheep on heat twice a day, fertility was 68.8%. The analysis of factors that can influence the performance of laparoscopic insemination with frozen-thawed semen is presented.