Fertility parameters did not show significant differences between mare age groups when only considering mares receiving cooled, shipped semen.
Still, the tendency was that mares receiving cooled, shipped semen from one of the "other" studs, had lower first cycle pregnancy rates.
Mares receiving cooled, shipped semen from stud B, also showed significantly lower first cycle pregnancy rates (20.4 %), than those from studs A, C and D. There might have been a weakness in the handling of cooled semen at stud B, or the stallion(s) for service at this stud may have been so-called "bad cooler(s)", hence, semen quality at AI may have been compromised.
First cycle pregnancy rate, seasonal pregnancy rate and foaling rate all showed significant differences (P < 0.0001) when comparing mares inseminated at stud with mares inseminated with cooled, shipped semen, favoring AI at stud (Table 1).
First cycle pregnancy rate, seasonal pregnancy rate and foaling rate all showed significant differences (P < 0.0001) when comparing mares inseminated at stud with mares inseminated with cooled, shipped semen, favoring artificial insemination (AI) at stud.
The Saturday races are already sold out thanks to the appearance of Black Caviar, but her trainer, Peter Moody, was not all that excited to take the risk to ship the mare from Australia.
In clinical ICSI programs, immature equine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) are often collected at the mare's location and shipped to the ICSI laboratory.
A retrospective cohort study was performed among mares inseminated from stallions at the four participating studs, to investigate fertility after AI at stud versus AI after shipping cooled semen.
First cycle pregnancy rate was 55.1 % for mares inseminated at stud with fresh extended semen and 42.2 % for mares inseminated with cooled shipped semen.
Mares inseminated with stallions from "other" studs were very few (n = 8) and these mares only received cooled, shipped semen.
