A sexed semen lab has been officially launched in Co. Cork today (Thursday, September 9) and is set to open in November 2021.
The new project will use bovine assisted reproductive technologies to generate female dairy calves and reduce the number the male dairy calves; as well as to accelerate genetic gain in both dairy breeds and beef breeds suitable for crossing with dairy cows.
The technology in the lab is developed by the company Sexing Technologies. The lab, to be located at Teagasc Moorepark, will provide a semen sorting service open to all companies in the Irish artificial insemination (AI) industry.
According to Teagasc, the presence of a sexed semen lab in Ireland will result in an increase in both the size of the team of bulls and quality of that team available to farmers.
In addition, the presence of the lab will provide access to a tool to facilitate genetic gain, as both X-sorted (female offspring) and Y-sorted (male offspring) will be potentially available from a wide-range of bulls, Teagasc says.
The authority notes that an increase in the use of sexed semen in Ireland to generate heifer calves in the dairy herd, and the ensuing decline in numbers of male calves, would require “an effective strategy to breed the next generation of elite breeding stock that are suitable to sustain or accelerate genetic gain in the national herd”.
Teagasc also highlights that, with a smaller proportion of the dairy herd being inseminated with dairy semen, “greater efforts are required to breed the next generation of elite beef breeding stock that are suitable for crossing with dairy dams that are not suitable for generating replacements”.
The lab will use In Vitro Embryo Production (IVP), which collects oocytes which are fertilised and cultured in a lab for seven days before being transferred to a surrogate dam that has been synchronised to be on day seven of her estrous cycle.
Dr. Stephen Butler, reproductive physiologist at Teagasc, explained: “Using this technology, an elite genetic merit dam can be scheduled to have oocytes collected weekly for several weeks. This would facilitate the dam moving from having one calf per year to having multiple calves per year.”
Prof. Pat Dillon, head of the Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Programme at Teagasc, argued: “The application of these new technologies has great potential for animal breeding and there is a need to test and validate their performance in Irish grazing systems.”