J. Anim Sci.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Flint, A. F.
Right arrow Articles by Seidel, G. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Flint, A. F.
Right arrow Articles by Seidel, G. E., Jr.
J. Anim. Sci. 2003. 81:1814-1822
© 2003 American Society of Animal Science

Fertility assessment through heterospermic insemination of flow-sorted sperm in cattle1

A. F. Flint*, P. L. Chapman{dagger} and G. E. Seidel, Jr.2,*

* Department of Biomedical Sciences and and {dagger} Department of Statistics, Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80523

2 Correspondence:
ARBL Bldg., Foothills Campus (phone: 970-491-5287; fax: 970-491-3557; E-mail:
gseidel{at}colostate.edu).

The ability to assess fertility of bovine sperm accurately and rapidly would be very useful for research and applications to the cattle industry. Sperm motility and other in vitro tests of sperm normality are only partially correlated with fertility, and lengthy breeding trials are expensive and time consuming. Heterospermic insemination by mixing sperm from more than one male provides an in vivo method to assess relative fertility among bulls that can be economical and rapid. Sperm that had been flow-sorted and cryopreserved from four groups of four bulls were inseminated in all combinations of three bulls within groups into nonsuperovulated heifers or superovulated heifers. Embryos were collected nonsurgically between d 13.5 and 20 following estrus and evaluated for paternity by genotyping. Following determination of paternity, a heterospermic index was created for each bull using a maximum likelihood function. These indices ranged from 0.22 ± 0.15 to 2.43 ± 0.43 (mean = 1.00, with a higher value indicative of greater fertility). In all four groups, either the high- or low-fertility bull was identified (P < 0.05) using a total of 25 to 36 genotypable embryos from nonsuperovulated heifers. The heterospermic rankings of bulls were similar for single and superovulated heifers for one group of bulls, but dissimilar for a second group. Heterospermic insemination followed by genotyping of embryos proved to be efficacious for rapidly ranking fertility of flow-sorted sperm from bulls when females were not superovulated, but results were less clear when females were superovulated.

Key Words: Cattle • Fertility • Genotypes • Insemination • Spermatozoa • X-Y Separation






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2003 by the American Society of Animal Science.