The advantages of freezing equine semen are:
- Frozen semen is insurance against injury or death of the stallion.
- The storage of genetically valuable material from the stallion for an indefinite period of time.
- Frozen semen allows international shipment of semen, thereby enhancing the equine gene pool in all countries.
- Horses from different hemispheres can be bred even during the stallion’s “off “ season. This may represent an additional source of income to the stallion owner.
- The stallion’s show schedule need not be interrupted for semen collection.
- Overuse of the stallion is minimized since most freezing is performed after the breeding season.
- Frozen semen allows more precise timing of insemination because semen may be shipped many days prior to ovulation, and so is available for insemination at the optimal time. This eliminates emergency collections and ensuing anxiety that semen may not arrive in time to cover the ovulation.
- There is often a reduced cost for shipment of semen necessary for a single heat cycle. With fresh/cooled semen there is for every cycle the cost of semen prelevation and transport. Sometimes it may require more than one shipment of fresh/cooled semen in one heat cycle.
Finally, frozen semen offers the same advantages of fresh-cooled transported semen in that it:
- Allows the ability to breed to any stallion regardless of distance.
- Eliminates the transportation and board fees to the mare owner at the stud farm.
- Reduces the possibilities of injuries to both the mare and the stallion.
- Reduces the chances of intrauterine infection since gross contamination is removed at the time of collection and antibiotics are added to semen freezing media.
- Reduces the chance of infection in the stallion.
However, not every stallion is suitable for freezing his semen. After an extensive semen analysis, we will check whether your stallion qualifies for this. Due to the individual differences in susceptibility to freezing, there are adapted protocols that give the best quality of spermatozoa after thawing per stallion. Thanks to the availability of two freezing computers, we can simultaneously freeze the same semen collection with two different types of semen diluent to determine the optimal diluter for your stallion.
Once the optimal freezing protocol for your stallion has been determined, semen can be frozen at a regular interval. The semen frozen on K.I. Hof Ter Leeuwe can be storaged there or transported to another center. Since our A.I. center enjoys European recognition for the freezing and stocking of equine semen, the semen collected and storaged by us, will always keep its international statute.
| Cryopreservation equine semen | |
|---|---|
| Health analysis ( Labo Böse) for starting up freezing program | |
| - Semen only usable in european union | |
| - Semen usable worldwide | |
| Prelevation and freezing per ejaculate ( = 1 lot) | |
| Stocking frozen semen per lot / per month | |
| Re-freezing of 1 straw to 100 straws for ICSI | Watch pricelist |
KI Hof Ter Leeuwe is een Europees erkend afname en bewaar centrum voor paarden sperma “ BN96/05 “
