Methodology
Global view of the status of al in developing countries
Semen availability
AI activity
Problems and constraints
Conclusions
Bibliography
D. Chupin and H. Schuh
The authors are respectively Animal Production Officer (Reproduction) and Associate Professional Officer, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Rome, Italy. This article is a condensed version of a paper published in French in Elevage et Insémination, 252: 1-26 (December 1992) that included 13 pages of annexes presenting country data, to which the reader is invited to refer for more detailed information.
In developed countries, artificial insemination (AI) is widely used for cattle, mainly dairy cattle, and to a lesser but increasing extent for other species such as sheep, goats and pigs. Although the immediate result is the impregnation of the female, the real benefit of using AI is that it gives all farmers the possibility of gaining from genetic improvements created elsewhere, privately or collectively. In the industrialized world, AI is usually implemented in combination with selection programmes, including performance and progeny testing, ending with the estimation of breeding values of the males, which means discarding the less valuable ones and, by publishing the indexes, allowing farmers to choose the breeding policy for their herds.
In almost all developing countries, numerous projects have been introduced to establish AI services and to develop their activities. While establishing facilities for the production and storage of semen is reasonably feasible anywhere, it is far more difficult to implement and efficiently maintain field service activities. The general feeling is that very few developing countries have succeeded in establishing an efficient and sustainable AI service. However, no new statistics have become available since the survey undertaken by Bonadonna and Succi in 1980, which was presented at the Ninth International Congress of Animal Reproduction and Artificial Insemination in Madrid in the same year. Moreover, whereas this survey compiled data from most developed countries, only a few developing countries were included.
In an attempt to describe the present status of the use of artificial insemination in the developing world, a survey was carried out by the Animal Production Service of FAO. Based on a very simple questionnaire, this survey was not intended to provide definitive answers to all questions about AI in developing countries, but rather only to give a picture of the present situation.
In March 1991, a one-page questionnaire was sent to heads of veterinary services in 135 FAO member countries in the developing world; however, no attempt was made to collect data from developed countries. The information requested focused on the following three aspects:
· Did an AI service exist? If yes, what was its importance (number of AI centres, number of technicians, etc.)?· What semen was available (locally produced or imported, fresh or frozen, of which breeds)?
· What was the cattle population in the country? How many females had been inseminated and in which breeds? What has been the evolution since 1980?
The scope of this survey did not include pregnancy rates.
Replies were received between June 1991 and June 1992. Experts completed the questionnaires independently and figures presented hereafter should not be considered official country statistics.
In an attempt to validate the data, the following cross verifications were made:
· total number of doses of semen available versus total number of inseminations per year;· total number of inseminations per year versus number of technicians (number of AI applications per technician per year);
· number of cattle compared with the data published in the FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 44 (1990).
Whenever these comparisons pointed out inconsistencies, a letter was sent to the originator asking for clarification. Grateful thanks are due to all the experts who replied to these (sometimes varied) queries. Very few conclusions were made as it appeared that the situation differed too widely between countries, and sometimes even within a region.
Countries were grouped by regions according to FAO classifications and then amended based on differences in the status of AI activity:
· Africa: all sub-Saharan countries except the Republic of South Africa;· Asia: all countries in the Asia and the Pacific Region, except Australia, Japan and New Zealand;
· Latin America: all countries of the Caribbean and Central and South America;
· Near East: all countries of North Africa and the Near East.
Maps of these four regions are shown in Figures 1 to 4; the countries from which replies were received are shaded. To allow for a convenient scale, the Pacific Islands have not been included in the map of Asia (Figure 2).
Of the 107 replies received from the 135 countries contacted, 104 were used for the analysis (Table 1). India responded that because of its federal status no national statistics were available, and it was not possible to obtain information from Kuwait and Lebanon since their records had been destroyed.
1 Distribution of responses to a survey on the use of artificial insemination - Ventilation des réponses à l'enquête sur l'état de l'insémination artificielle - Distribución de las respuestas a la encuesta sobre el empleo de la inseminación artificial
|
Region |
Number of countries contacted |
Number of countries having replied |
Countries not using AI |
Countries using AI but not producing semen |
Countries using AI and producing semen | ||||
|
|
|
Total |
Usable |
(no.) |
(%)* |
(no.) |
(%) * |
(no.) |
(%)* |
|
Africa |
47 |
37 |
37 |
16 |
43.3 |
7 |
18.9 |
14 |
37.8 |
|
Asia |
31 |
24 |
23 |
3 |
15.0 |
6 |
30.0 |
14 |
70.0 |
|
Latin America |
37 |
28 |
28 |
6 |
21.4 |
6 |
21.4 |
16 |
57.2 |
|
Near East |
20 |
18 |
16 |
0 |
- |
4 |
25.0 |
12 |
75.0 |
|
All developing |
135 |
107 |
104 |
25 |
24.0 |
23 |
22.1 |
56 |
53.9 |
* Related to usable replies.
2 Main organizational features of artificial insemination activity - Structure des activités d'insémination artificielle - Principales características de organización de la inseminación artificial
|
Region |
Number of countries |
Technicians per country |
|
AI applications per year |
Payment of AI | |||
|
|
|
Full-time |
Part-time |
Full-time |
Per country |
Per technician |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(mean) |
(range) |
|
|
Africa |
21 |
22 |
61 |
26.5 |
30637 |
369 |
15-3713 |
13 |
|
Asia |
20 |
485 |
60 |
89.0 |
377215 |
543 |
15-6574 |
15 |
|
Latin America |
22 |
129 |
237 |
35.2 |
308127 |
841 |
26-8121 |
21 |
|
Near East |
16 |
153 |
35 |
81.3 |
110675 |
801 |
38-3300 |
8 |
|
All developing |
79 |
196 |
104 |
65.3 |
211864 |
632 |
15-8121 |
57 |
Existence of an AI service
Twenty-five countries reported that they had no AI service - 16 in Africa (43.3 percent of usable replies received from this region), three in Asia (15 percent) and six in Latin America (21.4 percent) - while all countries in the Near East reported having an AI service (Table 1). However, as countries without access to AI tend to have less cattle anyway, it is relatively less important when estimated in relation to the number of cattle. In Africa, 13.7 percent of the cattle are in countries without an AI service, while in Asia and Latin America the percentages are 0.08 and 0.02, respectively.
Of the 79 countries using AI, 23 do not produce semen locally, and all their requirements are imported. These represent 22.1 percent of the usable replies. The other 56 countries with AI services produce semen locally.
Small-scale experimental trials have been undertaken in some of the countries registered as not using AI, such as Cape Verde FAO, project), Ghana, the Central African Republic and Seychelles in Africa, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (AI in goats) in Asia and Saint Vincent in Latin America.
The main characteristics of AI services in developing countries revealed that the first question of the questionnaire was of no use: when replying to the question of the number of AI centres, some experts referred to the number of places where semen is produced or at least stored and distributed to technicians (which actually responded to the question), while others considered any place dealing with AI as an AI centre. In this case, the figures given for the number of "AI centres" and for number of technicians could be similar, or they may refer to subcentres from which technicians started their trips.
Labour
The number of technicians (both full- and part-time) varied greatly between countries, as did the mean number of AI applications per technician per year (Table 2). The number of technicians per region also varied enormously, from 22 full-time technicians in Africa to 485 in Asia. This high number in Asia was not only because of China; Thailand had 687 full-time and 1263 part-time technicians, while the Republic of Korea had 1573 full-time and 1642 part-time technicians.
The status of the AI technicians also varied widely between countries. In Africa 26.5 percent were full-time, while 89 percent were in this category in Asia; however, no striking difference was apparent in the number of AI applications performed per technician (full- and part-time) per year (443 in Africa versus 543 in Asia). Nothing is known about the complementary activities of part-time technicians, whether they are related to AI (for instance at the AI centre or subcentre) or not. The highest number of AI applications per technician was in Latin America (841 per year). The replies from Brazil and Ecuador, citing 8121 and 9333 AIs per technician per year, respectively, left some doubt, but unfortunately they could not be verified before this paper was written. Excluding these data, the average for Latin America was 496 AI applications per technician per year.
Half of the technicians performed less than 250 AI applications per year and two-thirds less than 500; only 16 percent performed more than 1000 per year. In some countries, such as Namibia, Singapore and Chile, most of the AI applications are performed by farmers or farm technicians, as the AI service is only in charge of semen production and importation. For these countries, no data are available on the number of AIs per technician.
Payment of AI services
In 57 of the countries with AI services (72 percent), farmers are asked to pay for these services. How much of the total cost is covered by this charge is not known precisely. In Bermuda and Guyana AI is highly subsidized, whereas in Israel there are no subsidies. In Morocco and Tunisia farmers pay for some of the costs, including those for transport, storage or imported semen, and in Indonesia farmers pay for AI in dairy breeds but not in beef breeds. In the Philippines AI is free for small farmers but large ranches must pay, while in Turkey a government service (free) and a private one (paid) operate alongside each other.
Local production
Importance. Seventy percent of countries with AI services produce semen locally (Table 3). The number of doses produced per year varies widely both between countries and between regions. Of the 70 percent, 38.2 percent produced between 10000 and 100000 doses annually, while only 14.5 percent produced more than 1 million doses per year. Four countries - Burundi, Laos, Senegal and Togo - produced less than 1000 doses per year, and the biggest producer was China, with 12 million doses produced annually.
Locally produced semen represents more than 50 percent of the semen available in 75 percent (40 countries) of the semen-producing countries, and more than 90 percent in 42 percent (23 countries) of these countries. Countries in Asia and the Near East are more dependent on their own production (Figure 5).
Fresh semen. The average proportion of semen used fresh is low at 5 percent, ranging from 1.3 percent in Latin America to 10 percent in Africa (Table 3). The differences between countries are important, however, since in all regions except the Near East, some countries produce and use only fresh semen. This is mostly true of small producers, who presumably are not operational for freezing semen, but also of larger ones such as Bangladesh, where less than 1 percent of the semen is frozen. Latin America makes little use of this fresh semen, except in Trinidad, and in the Near East it takes on importance in Egypt and Iran.
There are two main reasons for using fresh semen. First, as AI with fresh semen requires five to ten times less spermatozoa than AI with thawed frozen semen does, the best bulls can be used more intensively. This has been evident in New Zealand for many years and in Europe more recently. The second, and more likely, reason is that it does away with the need for a reliable and economical source of liquid nitrogen. Any future developments of AI activities in developing countries must have to take into consideration that, apart from importing germplasm, frozen semen may not be a technology appropriate to developing countries and that AI can be implemented perfectly well, even within a sound genetic programme, with fresh (liquid) semen.
3 Semen production - Production de semence - Producción de semen
|
Region |
Countries producing semen |
Number of doses per country |
Percentage of semen used fresh |
Percentage of doses per breed | |||||
|
|
(no.) |
(%)* |
Mean |
Range |
Mean |
Range |
Local |
Temperate |
Cross-breed |
|
Africa |
14 |
66.7 |
57787 |
500- 615748 |
10.0 |
0-100.0 |
2.8 |
94.6 |
2.6 |
|
Asia |
14 |
70.0 |
1314246 |
200 - 12001000 |
6.4 |
0-100.0 |
14.3 |
79.0 |
16.7 |
|
Latin America |
16 |
72.7 |
367006 |
8525- 1905578 |
1.3 |
0-100.0 |
38.3 |
47.2 |
14.4 |
|
Near East |
12 |
75.0 |
442984 |
6912- 2500000 |
3.2 |
0- 41.2 |
1.6 |
97.4 |
1.0 |
|
All developing |
56 |
70.8 |
542792 |
200 - 12001000 |
4.9 |
0-100.0 |
15.4 |
77.8 |
6.8 |
* Of countries using AI.
4 Semen importation - Importation de semence - Importación de semen
|
Region |
Countries importing semen |
Number of doses per country |
Percentage of doses per breed | |||||||
|
|
(no.) |
(%)1 |
Mean |
Range |
Dairy breeds |
Beef breeds |
Tropical breeds | |||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
Holstein |
Jersey |
Others |
|
|
|
Africa |
19 |
90.4 |
11750 |
500-40000 |
87.0 |
60.9 |
5.6 |
21.4 |
8.0 |
4.0 |
|
Asia |
182 |
90.0 |
37437 |
200-290000 |
73.3 |
66.3 |
4.9 |
2.1 |
23.2 |
3.5 |
|
Latin America |
193 |
86.4 |
120780 |
92-1000474 |
91.2 |
80.9 |
2.9 |
7.3 |
7.2 |
1.6 |
|
Near East |
12 |
75.0 |
28877 |
300-133000 |
98.6 |
83.6 |
2.7 |
12.3 |
1.2 |
- |
|
All developing |
68 |
86.5 |
52036 |
92-1000474 |
88.3 |
75.7 |
3.7 |
9.0 |
9.5 |
2.1 |
1 Of countries using AI.
2 Data on semen imported not available for the Philippines.
3 Data on breed distribution not available for Mexico and Guatemala.
5 Regional differences in the source of semen - Différences entre régions quant à l'origine de la semence - Diferencias regionales en cuanto a la procedencia del semen
Breed distribution. Distribution of the doses produced can be classified into three categories of breeds: local, temperate and cross-bred. Nearly 80 percent of the doses produced locally were from temperate breeds, most likely from dairy breeds, although this was not specifically asked (Table 3). In Africa and the Near East, almost all the doses produced (94.6 and 97.4 percent, respectively) were from temperate breeds. In Latin America, 38.3 percent of doses came from local breeds, which reflects the fact that in most countries within this region "local" breeds are in fact European breeds that were imported several centuries ago.
There are indications that local semen production is increasing in 40 countries and decreasing in 11, although answers to this question cannot be validated. Out of these, three countries rely totally on semen produced locally (Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen). Therefore, the decrease in semen production could reflect a decrease in AI activity.
Semen importation
Importance. Data gathered on semen importation are presented in Table 4. On average, 86.5 percent of countries imported semen, with a minimum of 75 percent in the Near East and a maximum of 90 percent in Africa and Asia. The number of doses imported varies widely between countries. There are countries with efficient semen production that import only a few doses to improve their selection programmes, such as China, Cyprus and Israel. And only hundreds of doses may be imported by countries with small national herds (such as Singapore, Vanuatu, Bermuda and Qatar), where imported semen represents 100 percent of the total semen available. Other countries: that rely almost entirely on importation include those with quite large AI services as well, such as Madagascar (40000 doses, 100 percent), Namibia (10000 doses, 100 percent), Colombia (1 million doses, 90.4 percent), Honduras (17740 doses, 100 percent) and Tunisia (130000 doses, 75 percent).
Breed distribution. Dairy breeds constitute the major part of semen importations (88.3 percent), of which 86 percent (75.7 percent of the total number of doses imported) are Holstein, 3.7 percent Jersey and 9 percent from other dairy breeds, mainly Brown Swiss. Following on the breed distribution of semen produced locally in developing countries, these figures reinforce the fact that AI services are clearly oriented towards dairy improvement. However, 23.2 percent of the doses imported into Asia were from temperate beef breeds. Finally, 2.1 percent of the doses of semen imported by developing countries were from tropical breeds, mainly Brahman, Red Sindhi and Sahiwal.
To complete the picture of semen availability, the questionnaire should also have asked for data on semen exports. This may be important for countries such as Cuba and Israel that have already developed synthetic breeds or that have adapted imported breeds to local conditions. This question would also have given indications as to the possible sources of tropical breeds, although in most instances exchanges of these are prohibited by the lack of testing programmes, as well as by health regulation barriers.
Total numbers
Available data for 62 countries for the years 1980 and 1990/91 are presented in Figures 6 and 7. The total number of AI applications increased globally by 131 percent between 1980 and 1990/91, with large differences between regions: -5 percent in Africa; + 11 percent in Latin America; +85 percent in Asia; and +203 percent in the Near East (Figure 6). The decrease in total number of AIs in Africa is the result of the loss in Kenya, where the total number of AIs fell from 537000 in 1980 to 427000 in 1990/91 (-20 percent). In the rest of Africa, the number of AI applications increased by 135 percent (from 59112 in 1980 to 138961 in 1990/91).
AI coverage
Related to the total cattle population, a percentage of AI coverage can be calculated by dividing the total number of AI applications by the number of breedable females (from heifers at first mating onwards), estimated to be about 40 percent of the total cattle population. From data collected in the present survey, it has been impossible to avoid the uncertainty resulting from the difference between the number of first AIs and the total number (including repeat AI applications after return in oestrus). The AI coverage indexes presented here may be overestimated in most cases. As this system of calculation has been used similarly in all cases, comparisons between regions or between years remain valuable. Data are presented in Figure 8.
AI coverage in Africa remains low, with less than 2 percent of breedable females inseminated. A marked decrease was experienced during the last decade, mainly because of the decrease in AI coverage in Kenya from 12.9 percent in 1980 to 8.9 percent in 1990. The second highest AI coverage was observed in Zimbabwe, with 3.25 percent. In Asia - excluding some smaller countries, such as Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, where almost 100 percent of breedable females are inseminated - AI coverage stands between 1 and 5 percent, except in China (12.6 percent), Afghanistan (20.2 percent) and Indonesia(23.1 percent). AI coverage increased in all Asian countries between 1980 and 1990/91, particularly in Afghanistan, where the number of AI applications remained constant despite the war and a decrease in the number of cattle by two-thirds. In Latin America, AI coverage remains stagnant at between 5 and 6 percent, with the notable exception of Cuba, where more than 50 percent of breedable females are inseminated. In the Near East, the mean AI coverage progressed from 4.5 to 14 percent, with two notable exceptions, Cyprus and Israel, where almost all breedable females are inseminated. AI coverage in several countries - Egypt, Iran, Jordan, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Tunisia and Turkey - increased remarkably over the last decade.
5 Breed distribution of artificial insemination activity - Répartition des inséminations artificielles par races - Distribución de la inseminación artificial por razas
|
Region |
Number of countries |
Number of AI applications |
Local breeds |
Cross-breeds |
Temperate breeds | |||
|
|
|
|
Percentage of total |
AI coverage |
Percentage of total |
AI coverage |
Percentage of total |
AI coverage |
|
Africa |
5 |
46716 |
34.8 |
0.1 |
30.6 |
1.7 |
34.6 |
6.2 |
|
Asia |
8 |
2458087 |
72.7 |
17.9 |
10.0 |
51.9 |
17.3 |
77.4 |
|
Latin America |
5 |
1722190 |
7.2 |
5.1 |
59.2 |
13.2 |
33.6 |
50.7 |
|
Near East |
5 |
294880 |
12.1 |
2.9 |
27.7 |
23.3 |
61.9 |
53.1 |
|
All developing |
23 |
4520673 |
43.4 |
7.0 |
30.0 |
14.5 |
26.6 |
60.0 |
6 Total number of inseminations performed in 1980 and in 1990/91 - Inséminations artificielles pratiquées en 1980 et 1990/91 - Número total de inseminaciones artificiales practicadas en 1980 y 1990/97
8 Percentages of cattle and AI activity in developed and developing countries - Importance relative du nombre d'inséminations artificielles et de bovins dans les pays développés et en développement - Porcentajes de ganado vacuno y de inseminaciones artificiales en países desarrollados y en desarrollo
Breed distribution
Completed data for 23 countries enabled an analysis of the distribution of AI according to breed, i.e. differentiating between local and temperate breeds and crosses (Table 5). Surprisingly, a completely different situation was described in each of the four regions surveyed.
In Africa, the total number of AI applications is divided almost equally among the three groups. In Asia, local breeds represent most of the AI applications, while in Latin America this is observed for cross-breeds and in the Near East for temperate breeds.
AI coverage is higher than 50 percent for temperate breeds in all regions except Africa and for cross-breeds in Asia. This parameter remains low for local breeds but it is intermediate for cross-breeds, which seems to indicate that an attempt to improve the genetic level has been made over several generations.
The questionnaire does not give any indications as to the breeds of sires used to inseminate the three breed groups of females. Considering the availability of doses, whether through local production or importation (Tables 3 and 4), it is obvious that in most cases AI is used to crossbreed local cows or to upgrade cross-bred females. However, significant numbers of doses of semen from local breeds are available for use in pure breeding, mainly in Asia and Latin America.
The quite large number of doses of semen from crossbred bulls used in some countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cuba and Egypt, suggest that attempts to stabilize F1 characteristics are being made.
Apart from completing the questionnaires, experts were asked to comment on the main problems and constraints hindering the wider use of AI in their countries.
Motivation
While it is quite easy to establish the facilities and equipment for an AI centre, it is more difficult to implement and maintain in operation the corresponding field service. First, farmers should be informed about the advantages of AI at the genetic, veterinary and reproductive levels. Information campaigns are essential.
After technicians have been trained, their interest in practicing at the highest technical level must be sustained, both by regular retraining and the circulation of technical and genetic information, as well as by the presence of a remuneration system to reward efficiency. Various systems proportioning part of the salary to the number of AIs performed, pregnancies achieved or calves born per month have been suggested.
There is a general feeling that the privatization of AI services would bring efficiency and higher pregnancy rates and open the road to a sustainable activity. Although the weaknesses of public AI services are well known, data from the present survey fail to show any differences in AI coverage, whether AI is paid for or not. It is clear that payment for AI would not be the only effect of privatization, however, and that the main effect would be improved motivation.
Communications
Communications - the main problem facing AI services in developing countries - involve the distribution of information and the circulation of personnel and semen.
Communication is difficult between the farmer and the technician, who has huge difficulties becoming informed in time about the cow to inseminate. The exchange of information between the technician and the centre is poor as well: few records are kept or else records are kept but not collected nor analysed. Finally, feedback from the centre to the technician, and eventually to the farmer, on results or genetic data is limited.
Circulation of personnel to bring the semen to the cow is the other difficulty. All AI services are faced with a lack of vehicles (cars, motorcycles or bicycles) and the condition of the roads and the difficulties and costs of maintaining them are prohibitive. The system most commonly used in the developed world - the technician goes on request to where there is a cow in oestrus - does not work in developing countries. Alternative solutions that have been implemented include:
· insemination subcentres, where the technician waits for the farmers to bring the cows, sometimes over long distances (up to 10 km);· fixed daily round trips (rutas in Latin America) with fixed roadside stops where farmers bring their animals at fixed times (sharing the burden of distances);
· fixed farm visits (only for large farms);
· AI by farmers.
Faced with all of these communication problems, the service must provide more than just AI applications, the least of which is reproduction follow-up. Veterinary assistance and advice on feeding and marketing should also be offered.
Whatever the solution, care must be taken that no technician performs less than 500 AI applications per year (1000 would be preferable) in order to maintain technical expertise and to avoid poor fertility results.
Technical
Technical problems of semen production and storage at the AI centre can be mastered in almost any developing country. The weakest point is the need for a regular, reliable and economical source of liquid nitrogen. This is rarely available, although industrial sources of liquid nitrogen do exist in most countries. In many cases, distribution to field technicians is a major constraint.
Oestrus detection is another serious technical problem, mainly for small farmers, and they need training in this area. Oestrus is particularly difficult-to detect in very small groups, in Zebu breeds and in hot climates.
Together these technical difficulties cause overall technical inefficiency, resulting in disappointing pregnancy rates, which are the main cause of farmers disinterest.
Genetic value
Using the semen offered by the AI service must result in immediately perceptible benefits if it is to be considered of any genetic value. AI cannot be sustained if its only function is to impregnate cows. Unfortunately, a suitable strategy has yet to be developed: European bulls have not been adapted, local bulls have not been genetically improved (and it will be a long while before results can be appreciated) and the long-term use of cross-breeding is still a matter of debate.
The vast majority of developing countries offer farmers some opportunities to use AI, even if it is sometimes on a limited scale. Based on data from Bonadonna and Succi (1980) for developed and East European countries and data from this survey for developing countries, a crude estimate was made of the relative importance of AI activity in the developing world as compared with its role in the industrialized world and/or Eastern Europe (including the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Figure 8). Of the total number of AI applications carried out, 41 percent were performed in developed countries and 42 percent in Eastern European countries, while AI activity in the developing world represented only 17 percent. Although- logistical and structural problems cannot be underestimated, use of this technique can be developed: in 1990, 6 million more AI applications were realized in Asia than in 1980. In the Near East, the number of AIs doubled during the same decade. Even in Africa, excluding Kenya, the number tripled and six countries (out of 20 that gave figures for different years) started using AI.
Technical difficulties are already well known. Solutions exist for some, although their economical feasibility must be seriously investigated, such as that of using oestrus synchronization to overcome oestrus detection problems. Research on how to prolong the life span of sperm cells at body temperature is currently under way. This would allow AI to be less dependent on time of oestrus and/or ovulation. It may even permit weekly AI schemes or oestrus synchronization treatments with limited handling of animals - the semen being deposited on the same day as the synchronization drug is withdrawn - to be realized in the future.
Techniques are not yet available for oestrus detection in the isolated female nor for freeze-dried semen (which would solve storage problems). However, these are not the main reasons for the slow increase in the use of AI in developing countries. The main reason is the lack of sound long-term breeding strategies that would improve the farmers' profits in the short term without destroying the indigenous genetic resources in the long term.
Bonadonna, T. & Succi, G. 1980. Artificial insemination in the world. Proceedings of the IX International Congress of Animal Reproduction and Artificial Insemination, 16-20 June 1980, Madrid, Spain, 5: 655-667.
FAO. 1981. Production yearbook 1980, vol. 34. Rome.
FAO. 1991. Production yearbook 1990, vol. 44. Rome.
