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es and humans and avoid health testing for mares. But he also sees drawbacks.“ If only fresh semen artificial insimination were allowed, mare transport would still be needed. And with frozen semen, let’ s not kid ourselves: many stallions, especially older ones, have semen that doesn’ t freeze well. We know 30 % of stallions have poor-quality semen. Yet in sport horse breeding, unscrupulous sellers freeze anything! Natural fertility per heat is 60-65 %. In artificial insimination, it drops to 50 % with 200 million sperm( 4 straws), but often inseminators receive just one!”
Straw trafficking If frozen semen artificial insimination were legalized, straw traceability would be a major issue.“ Once semen is frozen, control is lost,” says Selle Français director Bérengère Lacroix.“ Even with contracts requiring unused straws to be returned.” Jean-Luc Dufour, breeder of“ d’ Argouges” show jumpers in Manche, experienced this firsthand:“ We stopped selling mating rights abroad. Buyers would pay the first installment, then nothing. For ten sold cards, maybe 30 foals were born with no return to us! Big groups like GFE can fight this, but independent stallion owners can’ t.” Every straw carries ejaculate ID and requires a health certificate to cross borders. Ideally, no issue should arise. Arnaud Evain, GFE president and brother of trainer Isabelle Pacault, enjoys buying his group’ s straws at auctions.“ Before paying, I demand the health certificate. I’ ve bought 20, but only paid for one!” Stallion owners now adapt to market changes sparked by ICSI. A“ cut” of a straw can sell for the price of a full mating since one sperm cell can make a foal. A single straw from the late superstar Chacco Blue, cut into pieces, can fetch € 20,000. Jean-Luc Dufour also fears genetic narrowing:“ A foal from a top mare used to be rare. Not anymore. From Germany to Mexico and Ireland, I see the same bloodlines. Embryo trading is booming in South America since shipping a canister is easier than moving a horse. We’ ve lost control! Thousands of embryos frozen by speculators, not breeders, could flood and destabilize the market.” A threat Thoroughbred racing has avoided— for now.
WHAT IS ICSI?
ICSI, or Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection, is originally a medical-assisted reproduction technique developed for humans to address infertility issues. The Italian company Avantea, founded in 2008, is a European leader in the application of ICSI in equine species. The technique involves retrieving oocytes— female reproductive cells. An ultrasound probe equipped with a needle and connected to a pump is inserted vaginally to aspirate the fluid and oocytes contained in the follicles. These oocytes are then matured and fertilized through the direct injection of a single sperm cell, before being placed in incubators until the embryos have reached a sufficient size to be either frozen or implanted into a recipient mare. Oocyte retrieval can be performed at any time of the year without the need for prior hormonal treatment— unlike traditional embryo transfer, which can only take place during the breeding season. According to Avantea, each ICSI procedure yields an average of two embryos, compared to just 0.5 for traditional embryo transfers( where the donor mare is inseminated and any resulting embryos are flushed from the uterus). With ICSI, embryo freezing is relatively straightforward, whereas it remains a major challenge for embryos collected in utero. It is also easy to determine the sex of the future foal— two major advantages that significantly enhance the commercial potential of this method. Financially, the combined oocyte retrieval and ICSI procedure costs just under € 1,500 at Avantea, with an additional € 500 per embryo produced. The technique is currently
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