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Title: SEXING MAMMALIAN SPERM - OVERVIEW

Author
item SEIDEL, G - COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Johnson, Lawrence

Submitted to: Theriogenology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/23/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Sex ratio control is now a reality for the livestock producer, in human medicine and for companion animals as well as endangered species. The usefulness of this technology has been widely demonstrated. This paper surveys the current technology and provides insight into how the sexing technology will be used in the future. The paper serves as a summary guide for the next 25 years of sexing technology application. It overviews the only technology for sexing sperm that is known to man at the present time. Sexed sperm will soon be available to the livestock producer. This paper will be useful to scientists to advise of the usefulness of sexing in a particular market situation.

Technical Abstract: Being able to preselect the sex of offspring at the time of conception ranks among the most sought-after reproductive technologies of all time. This ability runs counter to trends of nature which has gone to extreme lengths to make X- and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm phenotypically identical so that mammalian sex is determined randomly, with equal chances of male or rfemale offspring (18). However, from an individual's (or couple's) perspective, the sex of the next child born often matters, as does the sex of offspring to owners of certain individual domestic animals.