SEXING OF SPERM AND EMBRYOS

Authors: RATH, D - MARIENSEE, GERMANY; Johnson, Lawrence; NIEMANN, H - MARIENSEE, GERMANY

Submitted to: European Embryo Transfer Society Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Gender preselection will be an important tool for the future of farm animal production. Depending on the production settings maximal utilization of facilities, faster genetic progress can be made using only either male or female animals. Additionally, sex related diseases can be avoided. Since the beginning of animal breeding, people have been interested controlling the sex of their offspring. The first serious scientific reports were published in the 20th century. So far, only the determination of the embryonic sex can be used commercially to change the sex ratio in herds. But this kind of sex control includes the loss of about one-half of the reproductive potential and is used therefore only under specific conditions in high yielding herds. Additionally, after biopsy embryos partially lose their viability and freezability they have limited access to the international exchange market. Gender preselection of spermatozoa would be ea method to determine the sex before fertilization. Here we summarize the known techniques of sex determination in embryos and show promising experimental data on sorting X- and Y-chromosome bearing spermatozoa.