New fetal sexing machine for semen???

[TrueColours]

Just had a chat with a friend of mine who told me that a machine developed by the University of Kentucky has just hit the market and a Canadian vet out west just purchased one. Its apparently been used in the bovine industry up til now and has a 98% accuracy rate in fetal sexing the semen

It can be used for fresh as well as frozen semen so you could now put in your order for fresh cooled semen from your favorite stallion Fluffy and only send girl swimmers please!

It apparently goes on weight and boy swimmers are heavier than girl swimmers (which might also explain why they swim slower to the follicle as well!) and they are isolated in that manner

Very curious to hear if anyone else has heard of this unit, if theyve seen it in action and if they know of it from the bovine end of things

Supposedly also in the bovine industry it has already led to some “issues” as girl swimmers are being asked for in huge volumes compared to boy swimmers and it is felt 10-20-30 years down the road it could led to huge issues within the industry if there are no longer any bulls around and/or the genetic pool has shrunk into oblivion

[Bent_Hickory]

Old news: http://www.xy-llc.com/index.php

XY LLC has been doing this for more than a decade. I think they came out of the Equine Repro program at Colorado State.

Five or six years ago, I was told that realistically you need to have the mare proximate to the sorting machine and ready to be bred then and there for this to be viable for horses. The “shelf-life” for sorted equine semen is not long.

Maybe Kentucky’s technology is better.

[Simkie]

@TrueColours;6454838

It apparently goes on weight and boy swimmers are heavier than girl swimmers (which might also explain why they swim slower to the follicle as well!) and they are isolated in that manner

Um, XX sperm are heavier and swim more slowly, due to the weight of the X chromosome versus the Y. Not the other way around.

It also looks like this this uses light and dye to evaluate the sperm, not weight.

http://www.xy-llc.com/index.php

[rodawn]

It’s very actively in use here in Alberta for the bovine industry. There is a huge demand for heifers because a lot of ranchers just don’t want to deal with a bull or the financial constraints of getting a vet out for castrating so they can sell off the steers for meat at the auctions. Bulls are big and powerful, and some can be meaner than a starving junk yard dog. The one that shares our fenceline to our main pasture is black, MASSIVE, almost as tall as me (I’m 5’6") and has fairly impressive weaponry still firmly situated on his head. Fortunately, other than staring, he’s not interested in doing much else. When I first came face to face with him, his stare was very disconcerting - but while I’m still wary while checking fences, he hardly glances my direction now. Apparently, Charlie is about 15 or so years. His presence eliminates trespassers.

Most ranchers around here have their cows bred artificially and get their semen shipped through Alta Genetics as a handling agency and their sorter is going nonstop. There are still a few ranches where I see a few bulls shipped in to the cow herd for a few weeks and then the bulls are separated off and hauled away (probably to their next “appointment”) and one of my neighbours keeps about 20 bulls. He’s also invested in some pretty significant fencing, for obvious reasons. There are various rodeo breeders that breed specifically for bulls and the lineages are traced just as carefully as horse breeders trace their mares and stallions.

I have actually asked Alta Genetics if they would use their sorter on stallion semen being shipped to me and they said they just couldn’t keep up with the volume so turned me down.

[Hillside_H_Ranch]

[QUOTE=Bent Hickory;6454857]
Old news: http://www.xy-llc.com/index.php

XY LLC has been doing this for more than a decade. I think they came out of the Equine Repro program at Colorado State.

Five or six years ago, I was told that realistically you need to have the mare proximate to the sorting machine and ready to be bred then and there for this to be viable for horses. The “shelf-life” for sorted equine semen is not long.

Maybe Kentucky’s technology is better.[/QUOTE]

This. As far as I know there isn’t any “newer” technology and it isn’t used much in horses. It used to be (but maybe this has changed) that the sorting process was so slow that the semen didn’t survive transport for very long after being sorted, so your mare did have to be bred on site. Also there was generally a very small amount of viable semen produced, so deep-horn insemination was required at that time. However, perhaps things have changed?

[themarchcat]

I cannot tell you anything about the equine sexed semen side of this industry, but I currently work for my Uncle’s company Sexing Technologies, the company that OWNS XY inc. (since 2007) and the patents for all sexing equipment (to my knowledge), in Navasota, Tx. They primarily use sexed semen in bovine, which is why I cannot speak for the equine side, but I do know it HAS been done before and can be done (in horses). Even though there is a 93+% accuracy (98% is a little high… ESPECIALLY with horses), most of the sexed calves born are born their intended gender, except for the odd few, therefore not every sexed calf/foal comes out the intended gender so there isn’t a huge flood of female offspring. A lot of customers, I have noticed, still prefer to use conventional semen depending on which breed of cattle and which market they are producing cattle for. I, myself, do not work with the semen or the sorting machines, but rather with the cows helping doing oocyte collection, embryo collection/flushings, AI, etc. so I cannot give a huge amount of detail/information. The main ST in Navasota had plans several years ago to start pushing the equine sexing part of the company, purchasing a Quarter Horse stallion, and building the facilities and such to go through with it, but for some reason it never took off. I am hoping that after I am finished with my studies, I can come back and help them start up the equine side of the company again. I will try to talk about this with my Uncle and get more information straight from the source for yall. Sexing is such an interesting topic!