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to the sperm bank only for progesterone testing . In such cases , the breeders / owners perform the AI themselves with fresh semen when the time is right . Carol teaches them how to do it . I also met a few giant breed dogs . Many of these breeds might breed naturally , but the process may be too much for the owners . I met dogs of rare breeds , such as the Alaskan Klee Kai . Rare breeds may rely on AI services in order to preserve a limited population .
The rest of the day is spent collecting and evaluating sperm , shipping sperm to other parts of the world , performing inseminations and confirming pregnancies . Semen is evaluated under a microscope before use , and before and after freezing . What you see in the microscope is projected on a big screen on the wall .
Because many clients do their own inseminations at home , only a few inseminations are done per week at the sperm bank . They are performed via TCI while the female stands on a sloping ramp to help the sperm flow in the right direction . Successful pregnancy , or lack thereof , is documented at the sperm bank via ultrasound .
A major and important part of the business at Canine Cryobank is sperm banking : storage of frozen sperm that has been collected at the bank or at other locations and shipped for storage . The sperm is stored in liquid nitrogen tanks , which must be filled with nitrogen from a mobile truck delivery service at regular intervals .
The bank has achieved much success using frozen sperm long after the donors have died . This means that important genomes can be resurrected to the benefit of the shrinking gene pools of most breeds .
The success of AI is not only dependent on the timing of insemination , but also on the quality of the sperm . What makes for good sperm ? The age of the donor is an important factor , as sperm quality decreases with age . Another factor is stress , which might include heavy dog-show campaigning . Quality may increase after retirement from an active show career . However , regardless of the condition of the donor , frozen sperm is much inferior to fresh or chilled .
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Carol Scott Bardwick evaluating sperm under microscope , which is projected on the wall screen . |
owners are called and told the value of the progesterone and what to do next : either when to test again or when to do the insemination . Typically , one has to measure progesterone on several occasions to follow its rise . This is why I went to the sperm bank not just one day , but several days . And each day , I learned something new .
Most of the dogs I met were Bulldogs and French Bulldogs . The ones I met mostly had local males to breed to ; they come
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The Future of Sperm Banking
It is obvious that AI will be done in the future . AI allows for maintaining the small gene pools of many breeds and allows for more international breeding collaborations . One may also expect future improvements in AI performed with frozen semen , which could lead to increased use of AI in breeding . Improvements may be in the form of better extenders ( the diluent that the sperm is kept in after collection ), as well as more sophisticated insemination techniques . In that sense , knowledge may be gained from the horse and cattle industry and from the breeding of endangered species in zoos . DIR
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COURTESY EVA ENGVALL |