artificial insemination

• • Injection of male sperm into the female reproductive tract without sexual intercourse
• 1. Sperm is collected from chosen male using artificial vagina
• 2. Sperm analysed for quality
• 3. Sperm diluted, frozen, stored and transported
• 4. Sperm artificially inserted into reproductive tract of chosen female
• • Increase in offspring with favourable traits eg cattle with higher yield of meat or milk production or sheep with higher yield of wool
• • Sperm can be frozen and diluted into many doses meaning transported around the world giving farmers access to superior bulls from overseas gene pools increasing genetic diversity. E.g australia live import of cloven footed animals banned because of diseases risks
• • Increases chance of fertilisation of egg to produce offspring when animals don't want to mate
• • Aids in conservation of endangered species by increasing genetic diversity by allowing new allele combinations that would not be possible by natural means e.g captive breeding programs in zoos
• • If sperm was sourced from just a few superior bulls repeatedly to improve yield, genetic diversity decreased. Loss of genetic diversity increased if only few superior females used repeatedly with embryo transfer program to place resultant embryos in recipient mothers→ if favorable change in environmental selection pressure, may lead to mass loss of livestock and mass economic loss for farmer