Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2018 | Page 249

Sperm injection
procedure. The oocyte
is held with the pipette
on the left which acts
as support so that it
does not move.
The injection needle
on the right penetrates
the mature oocyte and
enables it to deposit
the spermatozoon in
its interior. Then the
injected oocyte grows
for 7 to 10 days in
a stove and is finally
transferred into
a synchronized
receptor mare.
place. This created a demand for the development
of semen refrigeration techniques, and above all
for transport logistics. Nowadays a breeder may
have access to any stallion, the quality of whose
semen is resistant to the cooling procedure.
Refrigerated semen transport techniques already
existed in other countries and all that was needed
was to adapt them to our systems. Something
similar occurred with embryos. As from 2010, many
breeders and players preferred to extract embryos
at their stables during the Spring, and so be able
to better schedule foaling of their receptor mares.
2011 Barren Mares: Oocyte Transfer
The first technological response to the problem
of infertility in a mare was oocyte transfer.
This enabled mares with very serious uterine
problems to achieve pregnancy. Although the first
pregnancies date back to 2004, it was not until
2011 that we began to practice them commercially.
Over 100 pregnancies in famous mares that had
become barren— above all due to advanced age—
such as Lambada; Simpática; Pastilla; Neblina and
many others, prospered. Oocyte transfer, however,
is a technique that requires surgery in the receptor
mare to be able to access the oviduct, which makes
this practice impractical and costly. Additionally, it
does not solve the problem of infertility associated
to the stallion. Many years went by before the ICSI
(Intracytoplasmic Sperm Inection) technology
appeared to solve this issue.
2012: Embryo Biopsy: Only Females with
No Abortions.
In 2010 the polo market started to demand the
production of females only. Technology was not
in a position to respond to this requirement. Fetal
gender screening diagnosis was only possible
once it had reached the minimum age of 60 days.
From then on, what to me is a very questionable
procedure begins in the breeding of polo ponies,
in which both breeders as well as associations,
and above all veterinary surgeons, have been
accomplices in a greater or lesser degree, of a
selection system for female pregnancies based on
the elimination of males by means of abortions.
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