Postmortem Semen Collection by Gaby Foxworth, Global Genetics, College Station, Texas
Editor's Note: Producing The Boer Goat is always a shear joy for me. I love providing relevant articles to my fellow goat breeders, but sometimes I find myself looking back through the years to find an article that will help out my current situation. Unfortunately, April 29, was that day for me. We were faced with losing a buck that we couldn't bear to go without. So, we called our reproductive specialist, Dr. Foxworth, who didn't hesitate to tell us to head her way. (Warning: the photos may be graphic.) Three hours later, she started the process of collecting our buck. If you cannot drive three hours on a minutes notice for a story in the magazine, Dr. Foxworth shows you how and what to retrieve to salvage some of a bad situation. Returning home at 4:30 am (Just in time for work!), I started finishing up the magazine and inserting this article into the magazine in hopes of helping some of you in this unfortunate situation. ACTUAL PHOTOS SHOW DR. FOXWORTH EXTRACING THE SEMENT. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AND DO NOT CUT INTO THE SCROTUM. CALL YOUR REPRODUCTIVE SPECIALIST FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS. As livestock producers, we are always planning for that conventional semen collection in order to preserve our superior buck’s desirable traits. Unfortunately, in our everyday farm life, we encounter unexpected situations, like the sudden death of the one of our “never collected animals” or “the best animal in our herd.” When the unthinkable occurs, we can be so overwhelmed that we cannot think of anything but the loss and possibly we try to call the vet to figure out what happened. All too often, we forget that there are options available to salvage genetics from the animals. The death of your buck is not a total loss; the semen that has been storing can be recovered and used for breeding and even more, the genetic potential stored in each cell can be recovered through cloning. Remarkably, even though the animal has died, cells in the body remain viable for several hours or days depending on the conditions to which the body has been exposed. Postmortem semen extraction can be performed, and if the cause of death is not related to a chronic and debilitating disease, it is very likely that all the semen produced and stored in the tail of the epididymis is recoverable and freezable. Likewise, if skin samples are collected soon after death, cells can be recovered and stored in liquid nitrogen for future options to reproduce these unique animals through cloning technology. Most of the semen produced in the testicles matures and is stored in the epididymal duct. The caudal part (tail) of the epididymis is the major site of sperm storage. Spermatozoa develop their ability to fertilize during their transport through the epididymis, therefore, the spermatozoa extracted from the tail of the epididymis are capable of fertilizing eggs. For better results in harvesting viable sperm and also the skin cells, follow these instructions as soon as possible after death or immediately following euthanasia: 1. Testicles should be left inside the scrotum (this protects the testis and the skin of the scrotum can be used to harvest cells for future cloning if desired). 2. Collect as much of the ductus (vas) deferens and tie the ends of each with a clean string or suture material prior to
The Boer Goat - 17
