T3: Guest Lecture: Sperm Quality Flashcards
Who is the guest lecture? Who is he?
Dr. Joe Dalton, professor and dairy extension specialist-university of Idaho,
What was wrong with the advertisement about “double breed every cow”
you do not need to double the amount sperm, to get better fertility results
How many sperm are needed in a straw to maximize the chance at a pregnancy?
it depends, every male is different
What are compensable seminal traits?
- Viability or morphology traits impairing sperm transport and ovum penetration does not occur.
- Severely misshape sperm in otherwise normal semen sample (they do not compete)
- Unknown factors (molecular traits?)
-Reduced fertility may be overcome or minimized by increasing sperm numbers
What are uncompensable seminal traits?
- Incompetence of the fertilizing sperm, completion of fertilization and maintenance of the embryo does not occur (no pregnancy)
- Evidence of increased morphologically abnormal cells
- Damaged DNA in otherwise is normally shaped head of fertilizing sperm?
- Uncompensable traits: increasing numbers of viable sperm, very low fertility
What is the significance of accessory sperm?
Increased accessory sperm number is associated with increased fertilization rate and embryo quality
What is the overall goal for semen quality
maximize/ optimize the amount of sperm dosage per embryo
What was the technology created for estrus
“heat watch”: configuration that was a automates estrus detection system (logs every time she was mounted or mounts)
What do you have to balance?
dose, sire, timing of AI
What was the summary of the sperm dose titration
sperm dose per straw did not affect field fertility, only a difference in bull fertility was detected, CASA was not able to explain the differences in field fertility between bulls
What is the summary for getting cows bred?
time, temperature, hygiene, skill
What do you have to be aware of when handling semen
beware of temperature variation in nitrogen holding, injury to sperm can not be corrected by returning semen to liquid nitrogen
How many straws should be thawed at one time?
Depends, past 15-20 mins, motility starts to decrease for sperm, do not lets straws touch when thawing, use multiple thaw baths
what are things to keep in mind when AI
-AI gun should not be held in the mouth: temperature is conducted/ put in overalls
-tank maintenance is important
What must we focus on?
to reduce the uncompensable traits, since these result in subfertility, regardless of sperm numbers in the inseminate
-use semen from AI studs, where morphology is a routine part of the evaluation
-use multiple high fertile bulls
-screen all natural service bulls with a complete breeding soundness evaluation, including sperm morphology
