GetBreeding

Well, now we’re approaching the start of the breeding season, it’s time to start thinking about putting your mare in foal. We get asked a lot of questions about the hows, whys, and whens of the AI process, so here are a few pointers and ideas to get you thinking… (these apply mostly to fresh and chilled AI)

The goal of AI is to deposit semen into your mare’s uterus within 24-48 hours before she ovulates.

To best acheive this, you should order semen when a dominant follicle reaches 35-40mm in diameter, assuming that the mare also has an acceptable level of uterine oedema.

Administer hCG (Chorulon) or deslorelin (Ovuplant) when the semen is ordered, to help insure a timely ovulation. It’s a false economy to not use an ovulation-inducing agent! If your vet is not planning on using one of these drugs, ask why not, and strongly suggest that they rethink!

CHECK THE SEMEN ON ARRIVAL! If you or your vet don’t look at the semen when it arrives, you are potentially setting yourself up for repeated failed attempts, and a lot of money down the drain! If the semen has been heated up, has got too cold, is from a stallion whose semen does not chill well, or has been improperly processed packed it could have died in transit. If you put sperm with 0% progressive motility into your mare, you are extremely unlikely to acheive a pregnancy! Check it, and if it looks bad, call the stud!

Do not pre-warm the semen! Put it straight into the mare… her uterus is the best environment for the semen to be rewarmed to body temperature.

Check the mare for uterine fluid accumulation 12-24 hours after AI and treat as necessary with repeated oxytocin injections, and uterine lavage if more than 2.5cm of fluid is present.

There are a huge range of fertility supplements available for stallions… all sorts of feeds, powders, liquids and gels which promise to improve your stallion’s fertility. The problem is, that the majority of these supplements are based on (or are exact copies of) human fertility supplements. There is little to no proof that human fertility supplements will have any positive effect on stallion fertility.

In fact, there is a growing body of evidence suggests that dietary supplementation of antioxidants (where no deficiency exists) has no effect on fertility whatsoever.

The only dietary supplement component that currently has any peer-reviewed research proving that it benefits stallion fertility are the Omega 3 & 6 oils. Data on it is currently limited, but there is research and anecdotal evidence suggesting that supplementation with these oils can improve freezability of some stallion’s sperm cells.

If you’re planning to have semen frozen from your stallion this season, and want to use any dietary supplement to try to improve fertility, you must remember how long it takes to make a sperm cell. The process of turning a germ cell into a fully fledged and fertile sperm cell takes around 57 days. So for the supplement to make any difference, you need to be feeding the supplement for around 60 days, and then keep going through the breeding season.

If you want to try Omega 3 & 6 for your stallion, we suggest you try NAF’s Omega Oil. It’s an affordable way to supplement your stallion’s diet with these oils.

Jos Mottershead, the world famous horse breeding expert and owner of Equine-Reproduction.com (one of the industry’s most celebrated and visited websites) is coming to the UK this month (January 2009).  He is here to run his phenomenally popular 3-day equine reproduction short course for British breeders for the very first time. Until now the course has only been available in the United States and Canada. The course will run from Friday 30^th January to Sunday 1^st February 2009, at Home Farm Stud, Hartpury College, Gloucestershire.

This course is considered by many to be the most complete single equine reproduction short course available. Although the course is easily understandable, it is intensive and covers all aspects of equine reproduction and breeding. It includes study of the anatomy and physiology of both the mare and the stallion reproductive systems; management of mare and stallion for optimal breeding; the mare’s reproductive cycle and hormonal relationships; fertility evaluation; manipulation of the oestrous cycle in the mare; techniques for live cover and artificial insemination of the mare; and the use of fresh, chilled, and frozen semen.

He discusses collection of semen from the stallion and the various methods, techniques, and products available for collection, evaluation and various aspects of semen analysis; preparation of semen for freezing, transport or on-farm use; identifying stallion or semen handling problems and trouble shooting them; and sexual behaviour of the stallion and how it can be modified.

The pregnant mare will be discussed including the hormonal activity present during pregnancy; care of the pregnant mare, and identifying and dealing with common pregnancy problems. Needs of the foaling mare and her resulting foal are addressed. Determining IgG levels in neonates is discussed as well as proper supplementation. They also present an overview of some common foaling and neonatal problems.

Everyone from the complete novice to the most experienced breeder, and from veterinary students to experienced specialist stud vets will benefit from this unique and exciting opportunity. Places are limited to 35 delegates and must be booked directly with Equine Reproduction Ltd who are hosting the course.

Contact & course information

www.equinereproduction.co.uk

Jamie Anderson - 07791 836107

lab@equinereproduction.co.uk

£540.00 per delegate, 30^th Jan-1^st Feb 2009, Home Farm Stud, Hartpury College

Seven stallions have now been confirmed as positive for showing presence of the CEMO, Taylorella Equigenitalis, in the United States.

However, this does not mean that the situation has become any worse. Jos Mottershead of Equine-Reproduction.com writes: “…As these stallions were already identified as contact animals with the four positive stallions in Kentucky, it is thought that they pose a minimal risk for further spread.

Contact mares bred with semen from all positive stallions must undergo testing, and at least two States - Virginia and North Dakota - have imposed quarantine controls on facilities where tested mares reside, pending negative results.”

The Metropolitan police are investigating allegations that a senior manager of the UK’s largest NHS Trust used NHS funds to purchase and illegally import equine semen, disguised as human semen for IVF treatment.

Louise Tomkins who runs a stud in Horsham, West Sussex was arrested and questioned last week, after internal NHS audits revealed unusually large purchases of human semen from overseas. It is alleged that Mrs Tomkins had created false invoices to the value of several hundred thousand pounds. However when these invoices were later checked, it appears that the companies the NHS were buying from were actually studs supplying stallion semen.

This incident has not only wasted hundreds of thousands of NHS funds, but could also have posed a huge threat to the UK’s EVA (Equine Viral Arteritis) status. Introducing unauthorised semen into the UK from continental Europe means that the semen could be carrying any number of diseases including CEM, EIA or EVA. If EVA infected semen was inseminated and caused an infection, that infection could spread very quickly causing abortions in mares, and causing stallions to become permanent “shedders” of the virus (in their semen). This kind of EVA epidemic could potentially be disastrous in a country like the UK where EVA is almost non existant, due to much tighter controls than are present in Continental Europe.

Mrs Tomkins, who is the daughter of a former British ambassador to France said the claims were “rubbish”. She said: “There is an ongoing investigation into some invoices that I issued, but it’s got nothing at all to do with horse semen and IVF treatment. That’s all rubbish.” Mrs Tomkins said she was co-operating with the police investigations, but denied all the accusations.

A spokeswoman for the trust declined to comment on the matter, but police confirmed a 45-year-old woman had been arrested and bailed over allegations of fraud at the trust. Hammersmith Hospital is a leading provider of IVF treatment, but felt the need to stress that it does not use horse semen in treatments.

Following on from the huge amount of interest we received for the January AI course which is now fully booked, we’re arranging a second course which will take place in February.

Become a DEFRA qualified artificial insemination technician on our two day long course held in Northern Ireland. 17-18 February 2009. Only £335 including all training, examination, certification, food and accomodation. Flights to Belfast are around £30-60! The most affordable way to become a certified AI technician!

£335 per delegate.

E-mail jamie@equinereproduction.co.uk or call 07791 836107 for more information.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2009 British Breeding Awards Dinner to be held on Saturday 10^th January at one of London’s top five star hotels, The Grange City Hotel overlooking the Tower of London.

Celebrating the very best of British breeding, this prestigious occasion marks the pinnacle of the breeding social calendar when breeders, who work long hours at the farm all season, take the opportunity to visit the sights of London to celebrate their own successes and those of their colleagues.

This year we see the competition disciplines recognising the British bred horses from their young horse competitions; young horse and Olympic awards; the best of the 550-strong BEF Futurity evaluations for horses and ponies from foals to three years destined for careers as dressage horses, eventers, show jumpers or sports ponies; racehorse to performance horse awards, sports pony awards and the Meritoire award for outstanding lifetime achievement and contribution to the breeding industry.

Over three hundred people will sit down to dinner in sumptuous surroundings, representing the breeding spectrum from top studs to individual small breeders and two superb bronzes from Caroline Wallace will be available for auction.

Tickets are £70 each. To be held at the Grange City Hotel, London, EC3N 2BD. For more information, visit the BEF website by clicking here.

If you think you’ve got a naughty stallion, or have dealt with a nasty one in the past; did he compare to this one?

“…nearly every stallion seems to have a story about how bad he is. While reputations vary, consider the tale that accompanied Executive Officer. A son of the well-known rogue Native Dancer, Executive Officer bit and pawed his handler unconscious. While the man lay on the floor of the breeding shed, the stallion dropped down and rolled on top of him, crushing the man’s pelvis. Then, to add further insult to injury, Executive Officer proclaimed his triumph by urinating on him.”

Taken from The Stallion: A Breeding Guide for Owners and Handlers by James P McCall, PhD. The book can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk by clicking that link.

Researchers from the Department of Reproduction Obstetrics and Herd Health at Ghent University (Govaere et al, 2008) have published a paper describing the abortion of monozygotic twins in a Warmblood mare.

Normally equine twins are dizygotic (non-identical). This means they are produced because two separate eggs (ova) were fertilised by different sperm cells from the same ejaculate. These twins were monozygotic (identical). They were produced because, for some reason the embryo split in two in the early stages of development. It is extremely rare for horses to ever have monozygotic twins. Even if monozygotic twins are produced, one is normally manually reduced, and it is then impossible to prove wheteher or not the twin embryos were monozygotic or dizygotic.

Sadly, these twins were aborted at 260 days gestation, one a fresh foal and the other a mummified foal. Understanding the mechanisms behind monozygotic twin production could have future ramifications for embryo transfer, and perhaps even improving cloning technologies.