Comparative evaluation of the cost and efficiency of four types of sexing methods for the production of dairy female calves

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate and compare the economic benefits of different embryo sexing methods, based on the cost per female dairy calf produced. Female calves were produced from four kinds of female embryos: (1) those collected from superstimulated donors at 7–8 days after artificial insemination (AI) with X-sorted semen; (2) those sex-determined by loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay of a biopsy sample of embryos collected from superstimulated donors after AI with conventional unsorted semen; (3) those obtained by in vitro embryo production (IVEP), using X-sorted semen and in vitro -matured oocytes collected from donors by ovum pick-up (OPU); and (4) those obtained by IVEP, using X-sorted semen and oocytes collected by OPU after dominant follicle ablation and follicle growth stimulation of the donors. The respective productivities of female calves per technical service and the total production cost per female calf of each sexing method were compared. The production cost per female calf (66,537 JPY), as calculated from the number of female calves per service (1.30), pregnancy rate of transfer (42.9%), rate of female calves obtained (92.9%), and total cost of the method (56,643 JPY plus embryo transfer fee), was less for IVEP with X-sorted semen and follicular growth-stimulated (FGS) oocytes than for the other groups (P < 0.05). The results demonstrate that embryo production with X-sorted semen and FGS oocytes provides a more efficient method for producing female calves than the other embryo sexing methods.

The Metabolic Signature of In Vitro Produced Bovine Embryos Helps Predict Pregnancy and Birth after Embryo Transfer

“…The scarcity of metabolites with sex dependence within blocks facilitates pregnancy prognosis. Independence of sex is interesting, even with sex-sorted spermatozoa, since the efficiency of sex sorting is high but not 100% [ 35 ]. The vast amount of information obtained in our study was unexpected, given the limited information in previous studies analyzing metabolomic biomarkers in CM for pregnancy or even for short-term in vitro developmental endpoints [ 24 , 25 , 36 ].…”

Cryobank: Giải pháp khôi phục nhanh đàn vật nuôi sau dịch bệnh

“…Phương pháp này tạo được nhiều phôi hơn ở thế hệ thứ 2, yêu cầu ít số lượng tinh trùng hơn và đồng thời có thể xác định được giới tính của phôi trước khi cấy truyền. Tuy nhiên, trong việc này không thể thực hiện nếu phôi được tạo ra từ những phương pháp ở thế hệ thứ 2 (Wagtendonk-de Leeuw, 2006;Obuchi et al, 2019).…”

Game-Changing Approaches in Sperm Sex-Sorting: Microfluidics and Nanotechnology

“…The utilization of sex-sorted semen is becoming more and more popular all around the world, among farmers, mainly due to the numerous advantages it may bring. Besides extending the size of herds faster, in a more cost-effective manner, potential bio-security threats may be avoided [ 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”