Semen technologies in domestic animal species

Abstract

• Artificial insemination (AI) has increased the dissemination of genetic material and enhanced the selection of best sires and dams. • Use of cooled liquid semen for AI still dominates in most species, while cryopreservation is the rule in dairy cattle. However, advances in the development of new containers, freezing methods, and AI strategies are likely to increase the use of frozen semen in other species. • Gradient separation methods are renascent to harvest the most robust spermatozoa from semen from sires, even those with low sperm quality or when sperm with a specific chromosomal sex are needed. • Sperm sexing is commercially available today in dairy cattle and, following application of novel findings in sperm- and seminal plasma diagnostics, will likely lead to its commercialization in other species. • Current research in the epigenetic capabilities of sperm should lead to improved diagnostic tests for male fertility, which could lead to new procedures for producing transgenic animals via AI.