How to carry out artificial insemination using fresh semen
Abstract
Artificial insemination can provide many benefits to breeding both in canines and other species. It allows the use of semen from stud dogs around the world without the requirement to transport the dogs, thereby opening up the possibilities of genetic diversity within a breed. The techniques required to perform insemination are complex but an invaluable tool in the breeding world.
Artificial insemination (AI) is a method of introducing semen, previously collected from the male, and depositing it into the bitch's vagina or uterus to achieve a pregnancy.
There are many reasons that AI in the dog may be required (Figure 1). For example, it could be that a planned mating has not resulted in a ‘tie’, the male or female are inexperienced or the male, while still fertile, is not physically able to mate the bitch, or it could simply be that semen has been imported from another country to enable breeders to keep their gene pools diverse.
Occasionally, and particularly if the reason for insemination is due to the inexperience of the male, it may not prove straight forward to collect a good semen sample. Therefore, ideally, before insemination is considered, the male should be proven fertile either by means of a fertility test or from a previous successful mating, and the dog should have been collected from at least once so that the process of collection is familiar to him. Unfortunately, fertility testing is not usually offered as a service in private veterinary practice, therefore, if a fertility test is required it is likely this would need to be arranged with a reproductive veterinary specialist.
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