MVH - Artificial Insemination Services

The veterinarians at MVH can assist you with insemination of fresh, chilled or frozen semen.

A breeding fee is charged for semen insemination. This fee is payable at the time the mare is admitted to the surgery for her initial palpation, ultrasound examination and breeding soundness examination. Additional charges associated with semen transport, medications, veterinary medical procedures and boarding will be billed to you under the terms and conditions pertaining to open accounts with the Muswellbrook Veterinary Hospital, P/L.

Note that frozen semen insemination is a more detailed procedure and will incur a high breeding fee.

The Breeding Fee includes:

• Semen Insemination. If your mare does not conceive the first time, up to the following two inseminations are FREE. This is a "One Time" fee for insemination of a single mare during up to three consecutive oestrous (heat) cycles and during the same breeding season. We are confident in our success rates and will not charge another insemination fee for up to a total of three inseminations if your mare does not go in foal first time. Further conception failure likely indicates mare infertility which we can investigate if required.
• All ultrasound examinations during the mare's cycle AND all pregnancy ultrasounds up to and including 45 days pregnancy test. The mare is to be presented at the hospital for all of these examinations unless prior arrangement for an alternative venue has been made.

This fee does not include:

• Semen Transport Costs
• Costs of Medications, such as Prostaglandin or Ovuplant
• Veterinary Medical procedures:

  Procedures such as uterine flushes, uterine culture, uterine treatment, uterine biopsy and etcetera are not included in the breeding fee. Should any of these or other procedures be deemed necessary, as an adjunct in increasing the mare's likelihood of going in foal, the owner will be contacted.

• Boarding (mares are generally held at the surgery for no more than 4 days.

Medication Considerations

Prostaglandin is utilised to manipulate a mare's reproductive cycle such that we have a reasonable idea of when she will be on heat. This medication is also used to "move mares along" should a heat cycle be missed or her cyclic status be unknown. Provisions should/could be made, if the mare is coming from some distance from the hospital and transport costs is an issue, to use prostaglandin in a manner to reasonably predict when a mare will be on heat. This can be discussed over the telephone should the need arise. This consideration is of importance due to the fact that mares arriving with their cyclic status being unknown would likely have to remain at the hospital for longer periods. This, obviously, would result in higher board bills.

It is of benefit, in some cases, to use your local vet to get the mare "on heat". She could then be shipped to the hospital with a known cyclic status and thus minimise boarding charges. Other than using a vet, a teaser stallion is used by numerous individuals. The "teasing" method is very rewarding. Provided the handler knows the signs to looks for, the system is reasonably fool proof.

Ovuplant is a medication used to enhance ovulation of a follicle (contains the egg) within a reasonable time window. In this manner semen can be ordered for insemination well in advance of the predicted breeding time. The medication is approximately 85% effective when administered to normally cycling mares that have a follicle greater than 30 mm in diameter, as determined by ultrasound examination.

Further Considerations for Frozen Semen Insemination

1. Handling of semen. Improper handling of semen can result in bacterial contamination. Because the procedures of freezing semen are designed to preserve the life of the spermatozoa they also preserve the life of bacteria. Thus it is not safe to assume that semen from stallions that has been frozen will be universally bacteria-free (or even virus-free). Another point is that occasionally increases in temperature are noted within liquid nitrogen storage containers which can occur from evaporation of liquid nitrogen. Fortunately semen is tolerant of temperatures rising above the temperature of liquid nitrogen, but only by small amounts. Failure to check the level of liquid nitrogen every two weeks, or improper procedures during transport has resulted in irreversible damage to many semen samples stored for either short or long periods of time.
2. Previous Thawing Procedures. It is important to follow the recommended thawing procedures for each individual stallion. Changing these procedures can dramatically influence the results of breeding with frozen semen.
3. Number of Insemination Doses. It should be that pregnancy rates per cycle from stallions whose semen is frozen averages half that compared with results obtained with fresh semen from the same stallions. An average pregnancy rate per cycle of fresh semen is 60%. Thus the average fertility of frozen semen can be calculated at 30% pregnant rate per cycle. If 100 mares were available to be bred with frozen semen then only 66 of those mares (66%) would be expected to be pregnant after 3 cycles. This has important implication for people purchasing 3 or 4 straws (doses) for a set price with no guarantee of fertility or live foal, etc.
4. Mare Fertility. It has been well documented that the most fertile mares are maiden mares. Next most fertile are mares with foals at foot and finally mares that are barren (non-pregnant for one or more breeding seasons). In addition the younger a mare is the more fertile she is likely to be. It would appear important that careful screening of mares selected for breeding with frozen semen is desirable.
5. Proper Facilities. Because of the difficulties outlined in this article it is strongly recommended that only personnel experienced in advanced reproductive techniques be involved with the initial breeding of mares with frozen semen. In order to maximise time, expertise and minimise costs we recommend mares be bred at facilities that have at least daily access by veterinarians for routine reproductive procedures. In addition it should be noted that management is one of the key factors controlling fertility on all breeding farms.
6. Costs. Costs of these procedures are likely to vary between facilities. However, most people should be able to negotiate a scenario wherein they are comfortable with the cost and expected level of success. We are aware that, because of potential problems that have been outlined here, pregnancy rates from mares bred by artificial insemination does not reach that of natural mating. This may mean the procedure, despite being well documented for its efficacy, may become the target for client dissatisfaction. We hope that recognition of the limitations and expectations coupled with good scientific practises will result in pregnancy rates that are acceptable.

Please contact us if you have further questions.