The Coon Den

Written by Joe Newlin

Chilled VS Frozen Semen

What the heck is the difference?Sounds like they are both cold to me…

Well, it’s really pretty simple.Sperms cells only have the ability to live for a short period of time outside of the male.Both freezing and chillingthe semen extend the period of time that the sperm can be outside of the male, and still fertilize an egg.In both instances, what we have done is to increase the amount of time that a sperm cell can remain alive, mobile, and fertile.Remember, a sperm cell does not have a blood supply to bring it food, oxygen, and to carry away waste…it pretty much has to pack all that with it…so we need to slow down it’s use of the energy and production of waste.

Frozen semen is collected and “purified”.All of the fluid that is not a sperm cell is removed from the mixture and this is then mixed with a special fluid called an “extender”.The sperm cell and extender mix is then flash frozen to a couple of hundred degrees below zero, putting the sperm cell in suspended animation.It’s not dead, but just stopped in it’s tracks…no longer using energy.Sperm cells frozen this way will last as long as they are kept at a constant temperature.

Chilling semen is much different.We will talk about the different types of fluid in the males ejaculation later, but we only collect a certain part of that fluid.We then mix the fluid that we collected with a different type of extender, one that is made to enable the cells to absorb some nutrients, and to protect them as well.This concoction is then put in a special container, complete with a cooling source.The design of the container slowly drops the temperature of the semen and extender fluid to a controlled temperature.This elongates the life of the sperm outside of the body, and enables us 24 to 36 hours of viability to introduce into a female.

Now that we clearly understand the difference between chilled (sometimes called fresh chilled) and frozen semen, let’s look at difference between the use of the two.

Frozen semen has been shown to be “just as good or better” than live cover semen.Well, that’s not entirely true, but given proper timing of insemination we have shown that conception rises as well as litter size.There is a considerable expense to consider when using frozen semen.Unlike fresh or fresh chilled semen which are both introduced into the female via the vagina, frozen semen loses a great deal of it’s ability to “swim” also called motility.Due to the marked decrease in motility, it becomes important to place this semen as close to the unfertilized egg as possible.There are a couple of different methods in doing this, the first is surgical implantation.

Surgical implantation requires a vet to actually perform the same surgery as if they were going to spay the female.An incision is made on the belly, and the uterus is located, opened, and the thawed sperm is placed directly in the uterus.This is normally an hour long procedure from start to finish, and most vets will require an overnight stay.

The second method of introduction of thawed frozen semen is call “trans-cervical” which is fancy talk for across the cervix.In this method a small rod is inserted into the vagina, the rod has a fiber optic camera inside of it, allowing the user to visualize the cervix, or the opening of the uterus.The rod is inserted through the cervix, and the semen in injected through the hollow rod, again directly into the uterus.

Trans-cervical insemination certainly is easier on the female, as it does not require sedation.You should be able to load her up and take her home within minutes of paying the bill…oh yeah…there is that part.This method requires an investment in equipment of about $10,000.00 those fiber optic scopes are not cheap by any means….so expect to pay at least a hundred dollars for about 15 minutes work.

Chilled semen does indeed lose some motility, but not nearly as much as frozen semen.It can therefore be deposited directly into the vaginaThis greatly reduces the expense.We will go over just how you can do this at home later, but know that if you are going to receive a shipment of chilled semen…YOU DON”T NEED A VET TO DO THE INSEMINATION WHEN USING CHILLED SEMEN.






 

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