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The advent of artificial insemination (AI) in horses, and the acceptance
by the Arab Horse Society over the past few years to register the resulting
foals, has opened new opportunities for breeders in Britain.
For many reasons, stallion and mare owners often prefer AI. It is usually
safer, and more hygienic than live covering. It allows a working stallion,
such as WAHO winner PHA Silvern Risalm, to keep competing without risk
of injury. And for a mare with a young foal at foot, it obviates the need
to travel to a stallion. The semen can be collected to order and delivered
to your door overnight in an Equitainer or purpose-made polystyrene box.
But until recently, there has been an extra cost to pay for the insemination,
a procedure previously limited to qualified vets (although stallion-owners
have always been able to collect semen without restriction).
As DEFRA has relaxed the strict rules governing insemination of mares,
laymen can now train as AI Technicians on an approved course, and practise
insemination if they pass the qualifying exam. This is very good news
for breeders.
To find out just what degree of expertise is involved, I signed up for
a course organised by BEVA (the British Equine Veterinary Association),
approved by DEFRA. The fee for the two days of lectures and practical
seminars was a very reasonable £395, including excellent meals at
the hospitable Hare and Hounds Hotel at Westonbirt, near Tetbury, but
not accommodation. The two-night stay added another £160. The course
is quickly oversubscribed as soon as dates are set.
The location was chosen for its proximity to the Willesley Equine Clinic,
a mile away, run by AI specialist Chris Shepherd and his cheerful team,
and base for most of the practical sessions.
The line-up of vets greeting us for the first mornings lectures
represented the most experienced and respected practices in the country.
Chris started introductions with world-renowned AI expert Martin Boyle
from Stallion Reproduction Services in Cambridge. Next was the ever-patient
John Gilliver from Lancashire, then enthusiastic Jonathan Pycock from
Equine Reproductive Services in Yorkshire, and finally a non-vet, but
the person who probably does more stallion collections than all the rest
put together: Tessa Clarke who runs the West Kington Stud, a centre for
excellence near Chippenham.
Then our 20-strong group of novices (three men, 17 women) studied the
relevant anatomy of mare and stallion, learning how to collect, evaluate
and package semen with extender to prolong its viability, how to prepare
a mare for insemination, how to complete the paperwork to ensure accurate
records, how to set up the ideal AI unit with AV preparation, collection
and a lab for subsequent microscopic exam all kept separate, and what
health checks to vaccinate or swab for.
Hands-on experience allowed us to poke around the insides of docile
mares and watch rather more rampant stallions.
It seems the AV (artificial vagina) plays an all-important part in successful
collection as each stallion needs a slightly different size and temperature
for successful ejaculation. Finding out what suits individual stallions
will ensure better results. Knowing which and how much extender to add
to the semen for transportation to the mare owner is another ingredient
of this complex process.
Chris Shepherd then took us to his Willesley Clinic for the practical
insemination session, preceded by a most useful hands-on gynaecological
exam of post mortem uterine tracts laid out for us on a work bench. This
was a vital help in understanding the physiology of the organs and the
location of the ovaries, Fallopian tubes and oviducts, allowing us to
understand exactly how and where we would insert the catheter through
the cervix, without risk of damage to the mare.
Then, to the live mare and the heart of all we were learning. In the
stocks, poor patient Dreamcatcher tolerated not only five sets of exploratory
forefingers, then fists, fumbling through her reproductive passages to
locate the entry to the cervix. She then had to endure a further session
while each student nervously introduced the plastic catheter the required
distance into the uterus.
You could practically hear her mutter: Oh no, not the orange glove
brigade
.
Fixing the two-part syringe full of a solution doubling as semen to the
end of the catheter required a third helper, illustrating the need for
teamwork in such a delicate operation.
But certainly this hands-on experience under the guidance of experts
John Gilliver and Jonathan Pycock proved the very essence of the course.
It even overshadowed the more dramatic task of collecting from the stallion
a fine racing Arab from Shadwell Stud called Jiyush, learning the
ropes at West Kington. We were most impressed as one of our students Alexander
Peternell prepared the AV with the required amount of 50 degree water
in sterile conditions. He then gently introduced it on to the stallion,
redirecting the flow of semen from the jump mare (in kicking boots) to
the largest condom any of us had ever seen. We then realised that, to
Alexander, this is all in a days work as he runs his own livery
and training yard locally with wife Alice and helps out regularly with
semen collection at West Kington.
Frozen semen is available from Sambist
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A small amount of semen was then rushed back to the lab at Willesley
for us to examine under the microscope for volume, progressively
motile sperm, and concentration. From this, we learnt how to calculate
the sperm count.
Welcome tea breaks allowed us to view the products sold through
EV in Shropshire, a leading supplier of vet equipment, specialising
in AI.
This course qualifies participants who pass the exam to inseminate
mares in the UK with fresh and chilled semen. Using frozen semen
from overseas stallions is a much more complex operation. It needs
skill to identify the follicles optimum moment for insemination,
involving a rectal ultra-sound, and this procedure is forbidden
to all but qualified vets.
All vets stressed best practice throughout and passed
out the HBLB Codes on sexually-transmitted diseases such as CEM,
EVA and EHV. Many breeders already receive this useful booklet via
the AHS. As EVA is fortunately not present in the UK, though rife
on the Continent, semen-importers have a duty of care to ensure
semen from Europe has a clean bill of health to avoid the risk of
contaminating Britains entire equine population. Equally,
CEM seems endemic in the USA though very rare in Britain, so all
imported semen should test clear.
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Here at Gadebrook Stud,
we plan to use the top quality semen imported from the all-round athlete
and WAHO Horse of the Year in America, Remington Steele*++ (right),
whose impressive post-thaw motility is between 60% and 68%. Australian
breeders at the recent World Crabbet Convention in Queensland also
expressed huge interest in sending over frozen semen from their excellent
stallions.
A final written exam sorted out the sheep from the goats. To date,
240 students have qualified as AI Technicians and received their
DEFRA exemption allowing them to inseminate mares.
The two abiding lessons students learned from the course, apart
from the obvious clinical opportunities, were the importance of
cleanliness and meticulous record-keeping, to protect both stallion
owner and mare owner.
However, no-one ever explained why it takes a billion sperm to
fertilise ONE egg! .......
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Rem's frozen semen has been
100% successful in the UK
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