NOTES IN AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY Prepared for Class: NRBautista

Artificial insemination

A female cattle (cow) being artificially inseminated

Artificial insemination is a biotechnological technique which is the deliberate

introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving
a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a
fertility treatment for humans, and is common practice in animal breeding, including
dairy cattle, water buffalo and pigs.

Artificial insemination may employ assisted reproductive technology, sperm donation

and animal husbandry techniques. Artificial insemination techniques available include
intracervical insemination (ICI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI).

History of Artificial Insemination in Humans

The first recorded case of artificial insemination was John Hunter in 1790, who helped
impregnate a linen draper's wife. The first reported case of artificial insemination by donor
occurred in 1884: William H. Pancoast, a professor in Philadelphia, took sperm from his
"best looking" student to inseminate an anesthetized woman without her knowledge. The
case was reported 25 years later in a medical journal. The sperm bank was developed
in Iowa starting in 1950s in research conducted by University of Iowa medical school
researchers Jerome Sherman and Raymond Bunge.
In the United Kingdom, the British obstetrician Mary Barton founded one of the first fertility
clinics to offer donor insemination in the 1930s, with her husband Bertold Wiesner
fathering hundreds of offspring.
In the 1980s, direct intraperitoneal insemination (DIPI) was occasionally used, where
doctors injected sperm into the lower abdomen through a surgical hole or incision, with
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the intention of letting them find the oocyte at the ovary or after entering the genital tract
through the ostium of the fallopian tube.

General
The sperm used in artificial insemination may be provided by either the woman's husband
or partner (partner sperm) or by a known or anonymous sperm donor (see sperm donation
(donor sperm)). The beneficiaries of artificial insemination are women who desire to give
birth to their own child who may be single, women who are in a lesbian relationship or
women who are in a heterosexual relationship but with a male partner who is infertile or
who has a physical impairment which prevents full intercourse from taking place. Artificial
insemination techniques were originally used mainly to assist heterosexual couples to
conceive where they were having difficulties. With the advancement of techniques in this
field, notably ICSI, the use of artificial insemination for such couples has largely been
rendered unnecessary. However, there are still reasons why a couple would seek to use
artificial insemination using the male partner's sperm. In the case of such couples, before
artificial insemination is turned to as the solution, doctors will require an examination of
both the male and female involved in order to remove any and all physical hindrances
that are preventing them from naturally achieving a pregnancy including any factors which
prevent the couple from having satisfactory sexual intercourse. The couple is also given
a fertility test to determine the motility, number, and viability of the male's sperm and the
success of the female's ovulation. From these tests, the doctor may or may not
recommend a form of artificial insemination. The results of investigations may, for
example, show that the woman's immune system may be rejecting her partner's sperm
as invading molecules. Women who have issues with the cervix – such as cervical
scarring, cervical blockage from endometriosis, or thick cervical mucus – may also benefit
from artificial insemination, since the sperm must pass through the cervix to result in
fertilization.
Artificial insemination in humans today is therefore principally used as a substitute for
sexual intercourse for women without a male partner who wish to have their own children
and who do so where sperm from a sperm donor is used. Donor sperm may be used in
other ways, such as IVF and ICSI and a woman having a baby by a sperm donor will
usually also have these methods available to her as alternatives to artificial insemination.
Intracervical insemination is the easiest and most common insemination technique and
can be used in the home for self-insemination without medical practitioner assistance.
Compared with natural insemination (i.e., insemination by sexual intercourse), artificial
insemination can be more expensive and more invasive, and may require professional
assistance.
Some countries have laws which restrict and regulate who can donate sperm and who is
able to receive artificial insemination, and the consequences of such insemination. Some
women who live in a jurisdiction which does not permit artificial insemination in the
circumstance in which she finds herself may travel to another jurisdiction which permits
it.
If the procedure is successful, the woman will conceive and carry a baby to term in the
normal manner. A pregnancy resulting from artificial insemination is no different from a

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pregnancy achieved by sexual intercourse. In all cases of artificial insemination, the
recipient woman will be the biological mother of any child produced, and the male whose
sperm is used will be the biological father.
There are multiple methods used to obtain the semen necessary for artificial insemination.
Some methods require only men, while others require a combination of a male and
female. Those that require only men to obtain semen are masturbation or the aspiration
of sperm by means of a puncture of the testicle and epydidymus. Methods of collecting
semen that involve a combination of a male and female include interrupted intercourse,
intercourse with a 'collection condom', or the post-coital aspiration of the semen from the
vagina.

Artificial Insemination in Animals

Artificial insemination is used for pets, livestock, endangered species, and

animals in zoos or marine parks where animals are difficult to transport.
Reasons and techniques of Animal Artificial Insemination

Artificial Insemination in animals may be used for many reasons, including to

allow a male to inseminate a much larger number of females, to allow the use
of genetic material from males separated by distance or time, to overcome
physical breeding difficulties, to control the paternity of offspring, to
synchronize births, to avoid injury incurred during natural mating, and to avoid
the need to keep a male at all (such as for small numbers of females or in
species whose fertile males may be difficult to manage).

Artificial insemination is much more common than natural mating, as it allows

several female animals to be impregnated from a single male. For instance,
up to 30-40 female pigs can be impregnated from a single boar. Workers
collect the semen by masturbating the boars, then insert it into the sows via a
raised catheter known as a pork stork. Boars are still physically used to excite
the females prior to insemination, but are prevented from actually mating.

Semen is collected, extended, then cooled or frozen. It can be used on-site or

shipped to the female's location. If frozen, the small plastic tube holding the
semen is referred to as a straw. To allow the sperm to remain viable during
the time before and after it is frozen, the semen is mixed with a solution
containing glycerol or other cryoprotectants. An extender is a solution that
allows the semen from a donor to impregnate more females by making
insemination possible with fewer sperm. Antibiotics, such as streptomycin, are

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 sometimes added to the sperm to control some bacterial venereal diseases.
Before the actual insemination, estrus may be induced through the use of
progestogen and another hormone (usually PMSG or Prostaglandin F2α).

History of Artificial Insemination in Animals

The first viviparous animal to be artificially fertilized was a dog. The experiment was
conducted with success by the Italian Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1780. Another pioneer was
the Russian Ilya Ivanov in 1899. In 1935, diluted semen from Suffolk sheep was flown
from Cambridge in Britain to Kraków, Poland, as part of an international research project.
The participants included Prawochenki (Poland), Milovanoff (USSR), Hammond and
Walton (UK), and Thomasset (Uruguay).
Modern artificial insemination was pioneered by John O. Almquist of Pennsylvania State
University. He improved breeding efficiency by the use of antibiotics (first proven with
penicillin in 1946) to control bacterial growth, decreasing embryonic mortality, and
increase fertility. This, and various new techniques for processing, freezing, and thawing
of frozen semen significantly enhanced the practical utilization of artificial insemination in
the livestock industry and earned him the 1981 Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture.
Many techniques developed by him have since been applied to other species, including
humans.
Animals Species where Artificial Insemination is applied.
Artificial insemination is used in many non-human animals, including sheep, horses,
cattle, pigs, dogs, pedigree animals generally, zoo animals, turkeys and creatures as tiny
as honeybees and as massive as orcas (killer whales).
Artificial insemination of farm animals is common in the developed world, especially for
breeding dairy cattle (75% of all inseminations). Swine are also bred using this method
(up to 85% of all inseminations). It is an economical means for a livestock breeder to
improve their herds utilizing males having desirable traits.
Although common with cattle and swine, artificial insemination is not as widely practiced
in the breeding of horses. A small number of equine associations in North America accept
only horses that have been conceived by "natural cover" or "natural service" – the actual
physical mating of a mare to a stallion – the Jockey Club being the most notable of these,
as no artificial insemination is allowed in Thoroughbred breeding. Other registries such
as the AQHA and warmblood registries allow registration of foals created through artificial
insemination, and the process is widely used allowing the breeding of mares to stallions
not resident at the same facility – or even in the same country – through the use of
transported frozen or cooled semen.
In modern species conservation, semen collection and artificial insemination are used
also in birds. In 2013 scientist of the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany, from

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the working group of Michael Lierz, Clinic for birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish,
developed a novel technique for semen collection and artificial insemination in parrots
producing the world's first macaw by assisted reproduction.
Scientists working with captive orcas were able to pioneer the technique in the early
2000’s, resulting in "the first successful conceptions, resulting in live offspring, using
artificial insemination in any cetacean species". John Hargrove, a SeaWorld trainer,
describes Kasatka as being the first orca to receive artificial insemination.
Artificial Insemination as a Violation of Animal Rights
Artificial insemination on animals has been criticized as a violation of animal rights, with
animal rights advocates equating it with rape and arguing it constitutes institutionalized
bestiality. Artificial insemination of farm animals is condemned by animal rights
campaigners such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Joey
Carbstrong, who identify the practice as a form of rape due to its sexual, involuntary and
perceived painful nature. Animal rights organizations such as PETA and Mercy for
Animals frequently write against the practice in their articles. Much of the meat production
in the United States depends on artificial insemination, resulting in an explosive growth
of the procedure over the past three decades. The state of Kansas makes no exceptions
for artificial insemination under its bestiality law, thus making the procedure illegal.

Source: URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_insemination