Can you artificially inseminate a thoroughbred horse

Follow Eliene Augenbraun on Twitter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Full Transcript. More Podcasts. Insemination with chilled semen requires good communication with the stallion stud so that semen is delivered on time. Frozen-thawed semen has a relatively short life span and therefore requires that mares be inseminated immediately before or after ovulation.

Subsequent management of mares for insemination with frozen-thawed semen is more intensive and mares require multiple ultrasound examinations to assess the correct time for insemination.

Advantages, however, are that breeders can use of stallions which are still competing or which are based abroad. Also, the semen can be sent well in advance of the mare being in oestrus, avoiding the last minute delivery of chilled semen, which may not arrive on time. Following insemination, your mare will be checked for ovulation and for post-breeding inflammation.

Treatment may be required following insemination, especially in older or problematic horses. Usually the guarantee is for a foal to be standing and nursing at 24 hours of age. Once the foal achieves this, you are on your own. If the mare aborts, or the foal is stillborn or never stands to nurse, typically the stallion owner will honor another breeding. Additional chute, shipping and breeding fees typically will apply.

Getting cooled or frozen semen requires professional help at the stallion end. We will need to know what those days are and how much notice they will need for shipment. Some stallions have semen that tolerates cooling well and remains viable even at 48 hours post-collection. The viability of most semen drops off rapidly by 48 hours. Success rates are much higher if the mare is inseminated within 24 hours prior to ovulation, or up to 6 hours after.

Stallions learn to ejaculate into an artificial vagina AV , which is a specialized large rubber tube with a reservoir end to catch the semen. The semen is collected, filtered, and assessed for concentration and motility using specialized equipment. From the standpoint of maximal chance at conception, there is a minimum effective breeding dose of million sperm deposited into the uterus of the mare. Once collected, the semen is filtered, mixed with an extender, analyzed a mix of skim milk, antibiotics and other nutrients and based on the analysis, is split into these breeding doses.

Semen is usually express-shipped using an overnight carrier. Properly prepared shipped semen arrives with paperwork that shows the semen concentration, motility, total volume and total dose. The veterinarian breeding the mare examines the semen under the microscope to ensure that it is alive and well and roughly correlates to the claimed numbers on the sheet.

Your local equine veterinarian often will be the one breeding your mare. Ask them if they are experienced in breeding mares with either cooled or frozen semen. Are they set up to house your mare at their clinic, or will they be making repeated trips to your facility to assess your mare and time the shipping and breeding?

Talk to them about cost, and how they will handle repeat breedings. In younger mares, a uterine biopsy is not always a necessary part of a breeding soundness exam. Mares that are not reproductive gradually become less fertile. A mare that has never been bred is known as a maiden. As a maiden mare reaches years of age and older, her chances of conception become gradually less, and the risks of pregnancy and foaling gradually increase.

This is not to say that old maiden mares cannot be successfully inseminated and carry to term, but the process of conception is often more complicated and expensive. Is the mare reproductively healthy? Ideally, you have your mare examined by the vet that will perform the AI, prior to breeding. If your vet has performed a biopsy, these results will be evaluated in conjunction with a full history and physical exam.

A young, healthy mare is usually the best candidate. Mares that are less likely to conceive and carry a foal to term are older mares or mares that have been difficult to breed in the past. It is important to note that even if a mare has had difficulty conceiving during her maiden year, it is possible that in subsequent years she will have no difficulty at all. At a minimum, the vet palpates and ultrasounds the reproductive tract. It should be normal. Some breeding contracts will require that the mare have a negative uterine culture.

Is she cycling normally? Most mares are not cycling in winter and early spring. Ideally mares are allowed to enter the breeding season before attempting to breed them. Genetic diversity : The likely result of allowing AI is that only the most popular stallions would be allowed to reproduce. Over time, the already genetically-limited Thoroughbred breed would suffer the loss of its extant diversifying bloodlines.

The Jockey Club is entrusted with the task of safeguarding the breed and will not risk introducing practices that are not only theoretically harmful, but in fact have proven to be deleterious to other breeds specifically, the American Quarter Horse and the Standardbred breeds.

Economics : Allowing AI and assuming larger books of mares covered for a reduced number of stallions would contribute to the loss of value of an individual stud cover. A live cover is subject to market economics because it is a limited commodity whose price depends, at least in part, on demand.

Conversely, AI makes the product nearly limitless, logically reducing its value. Similarly, resulting foals would be devalued because of abundance - a situation that Thoroughbred sales companies wish to avoid. Further, allowing AI would alter the infrastructure of Thoroughbred breeding by reducing the need for transport services, off-site boarding of mares, small stallion farms, and myriad other segments of the Thoroughbred breeding industry.

Legality : Once the train is in motion, there's no bringing it back to the station.