Good evening, everybody, and welcome to this Thursday night webinar. My name is Bruce Stevenson, and I have the honor and privilege of chairing tonight's webinar. Early start for us tonight, but it's going to be fantastic.
Quick word of welcome and thanks to Dinaval, who are our sponsors for tonight. As the evening progresses, you will get to know more about them as well as our two speakers. There will be some poll questions tonight, so stay awake, pay attention, and participate.
It really does help the speakers when they're getting feedback on polls. So please put the effort into answering those polls by clicking on the correct answer as you feel it is. Remember, there are no wrong answers, and it is anonymous, so don't be shy.
As I said, tonight's webinar is brought to you by Dynaval. And we will be having a Q&A session at the end. If you want to speak to or ask the questions, shall I rather say, of our speakers tonight, just move your mouse on the screen.
A little control bar will pop up. You'll see a Q&A box there. Type your questions into that.
They will come through to us and we will hold those over to the end. So two speakers tonight, which is a little different, and that's gonna be great. Our first speaker, Doctor Esteban Bala, is a vet who has been devoted to bovine reproduction technologies since his undergraduate years, when he started to collaborate with the IRAC, which is the Cordoba Animal Reproduction Institute in Argentina.
He then obtained postgraduate advanced study certificates in bovine reproduction technologies as well as bovine production. Whilst managing his veterinary production technologies clinic, lecturing and training veterinarians. From across the Americas.
Doctor Bala authored and co-authored numerous scientific publications and research projects aimed at exploring the boundaries of innovative technologies in bovine reproduction. Our second speaker is Doctor Vincent Martinez. He received his PhD in physics from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in 2009.
He then joined the University of Edinburgh as a postdoctoral researcher in 2009. Prior to Vincent's academic life, he spent 3 years as a junior scientist to investigate the optical properties of colloidal suspensions and thin films for the paint and coating industry at Coex in Mexico. Since 2009, Vincent developed innovative technologies to characterize movement within suspensions of biological particles such as sperm, bacteria, and algae, as well as synthetic particles like colloids.
And he became a world-leading expert in this field while based at the University of Edinburgh. Having authored approximately 40 publications in this field, Vincent has given over 50 international and national talks and as well as invited seminars. At Dynaval, he heads the R&D team to investigate aspects that affect semen motility, including sample preparation, concentration, and the metabolic health of spermatozoa.
Guys, welcome to the webinar, vet, and it's over to you. Thank you, Bruce, and good afternoon for everyone. I'm Stephen and, and it's an honor to, to have the opportunity to present this webinar today alongside my partner in, in Dynava.
So many aspects are considered very important in livestock production. But in my opinion, these are, 4 are, are very essential nutrition, health, genetics, fertility. One of them, is more important than, than the other, but they complement each other.
In this presentation, we are going to talk about fertility. In livestock production, it's process needs to be carried out the best possible efficiency. If we don't manage reproduction correctly, there will not be production.
So, obtaining a reproductive efficiency is not, is not easy since reproduction is affected by a lot of factors. That's why we call it, that is multifactorial. When we refer to this factor, we can name some, some related with, to the animals as fertility, nutrition, health, talking about the environment, we can't, it can be a fact, affected with temperature, brains, facilities, and the human decisions, management, and protocols.
When, when we compare parameters used in livestock production, it's very important to note that their, their relative importance. The association of breeders classified the animals by their physical conformation or phenotype. And when we talk about growth rate, it's important than physical confirmation.
And when we talk about fertility, it's 10 times more important. Let's see an example. If I have one bull, for one cow, how is, how important is the bull to produce a calf and the cow, and the cow?
Let's see, it's 50%, important. Now, if we have one bull for one cow, if we have 1 bull for more than 1 cow, is the the importance of each is still 50%? No, the relatively important increase more than 80%.
And when we collect and freeze semen for one bull and use it in artificial insemination in hundreds of cows, it's increased over 95%. We know that in livestock production in America, in general, most of the activity related to reproduction are focused on the cow and the bull is not given the same importance. I consider that there is our, our mistake as, as a vet since it's our job to advise those in livestock production.
But when pregnancy results are, are not what we expected, we finally considered the, the fall maybe, with the bull or the or the semen. But then it's already too late. This show us that we must take precaution and give attention to the bull, health and, and the, the health and the semen.
But what is the impact of poor conception and how do we know if the, if a bull is efficient, is efficient. So, we must consider the, the number of calves produced in one breeding season, OK? We must consider that every 21 days, Around 20 and 25 kg are lost in the final waste of the, the animal when it wined.
Since the gain weights on average 1 kg is gained per day. We know that in USA the price of a beast is around $6 per kilo. Therefore, over $120 are lost per animal due to the late conceptions.
Prices and losses are most, are almost twice as high in Europe. Introducing the, the annual, the annual breeding soundless examination reduced the risk for the future. That's why we must, they, it must be a routine practice.
Data collected in North and South America has shown that 40, between 40 and 50% of bulls have problems if there are not some less exam, but this reduced to 10 and 20% with regular checks. The removal of unfit bulls raised the number of conception rates and birds, and birth of the, in the first months of the, the breeding season. To generate a greater amounts of kilograms per calf, winning.
We, we must, we must give the necessary importance to the, the breeding season. To the breeding soundless discrimination rules about that, that numbers. This research shows typical observation that when evaluating the, the reproduct, the ability of a large large population of pools.
On the left, we can see the reasons why bulls were discarded, physical problem or poor semen quality. Around 70% have unsatisfactory or questionable semen quality. On the right, we have, we have in more details the physical reasons for, for discarding.
When we refer to breeding soundless examination of bulls, we must consider a physical and health condition. We must consider also population ability as a sexual desire. And we must consider the semen quality.
Many countries have certificate templates that's a standard standard size balls soundless exams. But how can we analyze the semen quality? Traditionally, semen analysis has been carried out using visual assessment with an optical microscope following the world, the World Health Organization guideline.
The benefits is that this is portable and can be performed on farm or in a clinic. But the problem is that the assessment is very sensitive with up to 40% differences between vets. Other way is with the computer aid semen analysis in the lab that provide quantitative information of semen of semen motility, but they can only be used with careful control of concentration and skilled users.
In a few minutes, Vincent will tell us about the laid innovation is the Dynascan semen analyser. So before we can assess fresh semen, we need to collect it. Collect, to collect semen with artificial vagina, the bulls need to be trained and collected regularly.
This is more common in a bull's style. As you can see on the top of the left, the artificial vagina is a plastic device covered with rubber on the outside and the inside. In the inside between the rubber and the plastic, there are water stored at a similar temperature of cow's vagina.
It's that what stimulate the ejaculator, the ejaculation of, of the board. When the bull stand on two legs in front of a cow or a dummy, the operator approach and manually insert the the penis into the vagina, into the artificial vagina, and the ejaculate semen is stored in a tube in the opposite end. Other way to to collect semen is user using the electroejaculator.
This is the most commonly used by vets and for this activity, we must take extreme care with the animal. This is an an advice that emit electrical pulse remically, directly on the mucosa of the rectum, stimulating the reproductive glands. When the bull is stimulated, it puts out the peanuts and ejaculates.
There, the operator has to be attentive to collect the semi in in a tube. The, the electric ejaculator is used when bulls live in a pasture or they are not in stable or stale stalls because when they live in pasture, they are not handled daily and they are not docile. Then to perform the analysis of frozen semen and straw, we need to be very careful with the protocol for thawing and handing the liquid nitrogen.
Remove, we must first of all, we have to remove the straw from the nitrogen tank. Place it in a tower with 37 °C water for a minimum of 30 seconds. Then we take out the straw and dry it with a piece of paper, cut the opposite end of the carton plug is and introduce the straw in a, in a, in an AI pistol.
Now, well, now, I will tell you about how to evaluate semen quality. Before you send any, any equipment, we can use visual observation following the guideline proposed by Doctor Barth from Canada. First, we need to analyze density and volume of the ejaculate.
The the average volume of ejaculate is between 4 and 6 mL. Also, the color and the appearance. When we, we have a very good ejaculate.
Has grainy appearance and opaque color. That means that it has more or less more than 50,000 and 50 million sperm per milliliters. Then we set up the microscope and observe the mass motility.
We assess the extent of swirling motion. In this video, here you show a swirling motion that I use, I would rate as good sample. If there is no shrilling, it might, it may be that the single sample has been diluted with urine or, or pre simulant fluid.
Already, so we need to perform a progressive mobility assessment next. To us, to assess progressive motility, we must use diluted semen and use a phase contract microscope and assess by eye. Hm.
The percentage progressive motility is the number of cells moving and covering distance relative to the total of cell population. We also assess the speed as a movement force of the speed, the speed of a sperm in the muscular coy. For fresh semen, we expect the percentage of progressive motility cells to be higher than 60%.
And it is lower for frozen semen because of the frozen process. For the concentration analysis, we use the new power cell counting chamber with the number obtained, we apply the, the formula, and we must remember that the visual assessment, assessment is a subjective methodology and the results depend on the experience of the operator who perform it. For morphology analysis, we stay in a dropbox deleted semen and observe the sample with 100 objectives.
In the picture of the right, we can see the most common shape of normal bovine sperm. There are many, many ways to classify spare abnormalities, but the most used are based on the guideline proposed of, by Doctor Bath from Canada. And we can, we can classify head defects, meat be defects, principal beats, and tail defects.
Some of the those effects defects can be compensated for by increasing the spare concentration. So let's see some of the most common defects founded as a pitiform heads, macro and microcephalic sperm, nacrosome. From the midpiece, proximal droplets, digital middle please, the middle piece reflects, and principal piece entail coil principal piece.
When we analyze frozen semen, we use the semenal postho viability parameter in relation in relation to the stress test at 0 and to our post thought. Fresh semen is evaluated differently than frozen semen. Until recently, the, there has been no single standard in the industry for analyzing conventional or sexed semen.
Mm. There are the, the parameter here. We, you can see the parameters that are based on the guideline of Doctor Bass.
Now, Doctor Vincent Maine Martinez, will tell you about the DNA scan semen analysis. Thank you, Esteban, for your presentation and thank you to the audience for joining us, tonight. So I'm Vincent Martinez.
I'm a physicist, with 15 years of experience, looking at the physics of swimming microorganisms, including spermatozo, bacteria, and other systems. And, during my, my research, focus, I had to decouple physics phenomena from biology and chemistry. And in that journey, I lead to the development of the core technology behind Dynaar, the Dyna scans human analyzer.
Dynascan is a portable device to check semen mortality. It can be used at the farm or in the lab. It is portable but yet delivers lab quality results.
And it can be used by anyone with no requirements for prior experience in semen analysis. The only thing that is required is a 30 minutes long training, and we mostly teach around good practice for sample preparation. The technology is very easy and practical.
You simply connect the D DNA scan to the main and to a laptop via a USB cable. On the laptop, there is an application that controls the device. It can be used on fresh semen, on post frozen semen, including conventional and sexed semen.
We developed the technology for the cattle industry for bull semen, but we can also apply it for RAM samples. And we're currently extending, studies to other species including equine, pig, and canine. Now, to place the NINA scan in the competitive landscape, as Esteban mentioned today, vets use microscope to perform visual assessment.
This is known to have a degree of subjectivity and viability. In the 80s, was developed the computer aided semen analysis. This is the one you see here is not the original version.
It is the most recent version and potentially the most common kind of technology out there called the iOS 2. Dynascan is the next generation technology, and the idea behind Dynascan was to develop a technology that overcome the limitation of the kinds of technology. So DA scan is portable, it is user independence, and two independent users will obtain very similar results for the same samples, and that's why I'm trying to convince you tonight.
And more importantly, DNA scan can be applied over a wider range of concentration. Dynascan can work at concentration up to 400 million cells per year, which is about 10 times higher concentration than what a CASA lab-based equipment can do. Now, how do we achieve that?
So, to explain the difference between CASA technology and the DA scan technology, I need to introduce a little bit of the CASA technology concept. CASA requires high resolution microscopy videos and using a computer algorithm called particle tracking, the algorithm tracks the head of the cells across the images and from the tracks, you can extract information. The issue with cancer is that if it's too concentrated, the tracks overlap and you cannot extract any information.
So one needs to dilute the solution. But if the solution is too diluted, there is not enough cells in the image in the field of view and so give very low statistics. DAs can use a completely different approach.
This is not based on particle tracking. Instead, we do have an image module within the DNA scan. We send a light through the sample and collect the sample with a digital camera.
And what we see on the camera is that the intensity fluctuates over time and space. These fluctuations are due to the motion of the spermatozole. It could be motile due to swimming or could be non-motile due to diffusive or what is called Brownian motion.
What we've done within Dynava is to develop an algorithm to extract. The percentage progressive mortality and means swimming speed efficiently from these fluctuations. All the information can be obtained so just information about the head oscillation.
So the key concept is we do not need to track individual cells and therefore we use a field of view, a surface area of the imaging, which is up to more than 20 times larger than the standard field of view for a cancer equipment. We also record much longer videos. We can work at much higher concentration and this is how we can get thousands of cells in the field of view and get very good petibility of the measurement.
This is an example of a Dynavalmod video collected at the farm in a dusty environments. The sperm cells swim nicely. They look like little dots moving in space.
And what you see here are spots or dust outside the slide and these do not contribute to the signal and we're still able to deliver a very good measurement. We also provide a dual mode within the DNA scan. So we also have access.
The user also have access to a visual mode video. So you can still perform a visual assessment if you wish to from a higher resolution microscopy, similar objective than using a standard cursor. From this video, you can do your own visual assessment.
You can save it, keep it as a proof of record, and share with your peers, colleagues, students, or even customers. But from the Dynaar mode video, you get the values. This is an example, a little study we've done with 5 users.
3 was the very first time to perform a semen analysis to be to be wearing a lab coats or being in a wet lab. And yet they observed or they measured, sorry, percentage progressive mortality within 1% of someone with more than 10 years of experience in the lab or a student with 3 months in a weight lab. These 3 which were first time users, they are not vets, they are not technicians.
They were software developers and marketing managers. And with only 30 minute long training, they managed to get very very accurate measurements. Reproducibility is also good across devices.
From these data, we have reputability within + 1%, but we do claim a reputability less than + -3%, which also take into account biological variation at the time of preparing different chambersomes. Our technology is not only repeatable, it's also accurate. We perform in-house measurements, validation study comparing D DNA scan with a CASA machine, an IVOS2, which is potentially one of the most common lab-based CASA equipment.
But also similar study were performed with external third-party companies and we find very good agreement between the two. So today, we now have a device that can be used in, in a semen lab or at the farms with very little experience in semen analysis and yet can deliver very precise measurements. This is a little study exposing that percentage progressive mortality measured by a vets from a visual assessments at a farm using a microscope and its own evaluation methods can bias the measurements.
And in that specific case, the vet tended to overestimate the percentage progressive mortality of a semen struse. And that was presumably due to the fact that the vet was selecting the most the highest motile area within the cover slip instead of averaging across the whole width of the cover slip. The DNA scan and its protocols really help to get rid of that subjectivity or viability so that the user have full confidence in the measurement.
I've mentioned DNA scan can be applied to a wide range of concentration. These are data collected on post, so RAM samples. RAM peets of straws usually start at a much higher concentration than Bosse in straws.
And so we can do a dilution studies here from 10 million cells per meal to up to 400 million cells per meal. This is a logarithmic scale. And we can see a very good reproducibility here.
The key message to take home here is that for both semen straws, there is no need to dilute whatsoever with Dynascam. So you get rid of one step less from the quality control. But two, you also remove any potential risk of incompatibilities between the extenders used to produce the straw and the dilut used for the dilution.
Now the idea is we have that device, that measure progressive mortality. How does it correlate with fertility production? Well, from previous measurements are not performed with the DNA scan, and that was a PHD test in 2017 on equine skimming, they find a very good correlation between the percentage of progressive multi cells with the percentage of cells believed to fertilize the eggs better, like the acrosomineta parent.
But more recently, there was a result presented by Doctor Roberglino at the European AI conference last October, and she found based on the gene analysis that the high fertility boost as spermato with good fragile structure and function. If they have a good fragile structure and function, they must, the high fertility boosts must be correlated with a parameters of mortality. So following that, we worked with Doctor Kiera O'Mara from the National Cattle Breeding Center in Ireland, and she used the DA scan and tested bulls from the Irish population.
And from the percentage progressive mortality, she correlated with the concession rates, and she had thousands of insemination for each and we find good correlation with the prostatage progressive mortality. This is super mini study and we are looking to extend further experiments and to submit in a peer reviewed journal. In the meantime, you can get more information from our blog, from our website.
The technique can be applied to conventional or sexed semen straws as well on top of fresh semen, and we provide guidance about typical measurements collected on farms, last year by beta testers and customers. We do, there was about 100 straws tested. We now have data over, a couple of hundreds and more straws, independent straws, independent batches, and we're going to update all the information.
What you can see is for sexalted semen, we tend to measure lower percentage for progressive mortality and this is not unexpected as the industry is aware that the sex sorting processes are very demanding, intense on the sperm cells. The one user can then compare from their results where they fit within the landscape of other measurements. Now, one specific advantage of the DINA scan is one can perform a thermal resistance stress tests in an automated way at a single click and go.
So one can place the sample within the DNA scan and decide to monitor a motility as long as you wish. In that specific case, we monitor motility for 5 hours. And so we have the main summing speed as a function of time.
And what we witness is a transition from a high speed to a lower speed within a very short time. And what we'd witnessed here is a transition from aerobic, fully oxygenated environments to anaerobic, fully where the cells are fully consumed the oxygen available within the solution. But yet, the percentage of progressive motorized cells have not changed during that transition.
And can maintain motility in that case for a period of 4 hours. From that, we can define a new parameters we call the sustained mortality lifetime, which is basically the time for progressive mortality to reduce by 50%. In that case, it will be approximately 4 hours or more.
While this could be used as a new tool for quality control to assess semen quality, it can also be used for research environments. You could look at metabolic health. You could look at potential damage from toxins due to the metabolic activity.
You could look at the importance of an extender or developing new extenders or potentially looking at the importance of a specific seminal plasma. Now not all straws have the capability to maintain swimming in an aerobic environment. This is an example where we perform time dependency measurements of the 5 balls both through from different ejaculates.
Each corresponds to 1 bull for 4 of them, they could maintain motility over a decent time, over a fairly long time, 3 to 4 hours. The one really stands out, bullex starting at 45% progressive mortality will pass any of the quality control probably, but within 30 minutes, mortality collapsed and ceases. Looking more details to bolex, checking again the same batch number one with the orange straw, we find a reproducibility of that.
Something is wrong with that batch. We also tested all the independent ejaculate, independent batches, and you can see a rather different response from it. While eventually batch number 2 and 1 would potentially have a very similar progressive mortality at times 0 over a certain time, the response is really different.
That also exposed that one needs to check every independent batch before to be released. Now we know that the conditions surrounding the oocyte in the vitic fluid has a low oxygen content and potentially have an anaerobic environment as the ocyte consume a lot of oxygen. The question we posed in that webinar is could such new and innovative time dependency measurements could be used to advise or improve artificial insemination protocols.
On these words, I pass on to Esteban, we will talk more about artificial insemination. OK. Thank you, Vincent.
And thanks to, to the DNA scan, we can see that semen quality can differ enormously between samples, but not only by the percentage progressive motility, but also the lifetime over which the sperm cells can, can swim. Let us know, learn about artificial dissemination and consider the AI protocols that, that are available for us. First of all, we, we must, refresh, what is artificial insemination.
We know that it's a biotechnology that consists of the deposit of the sperm into the reproductive tract of the female, but when we should put that, that semen. Mhm Before, during, or, or after ovulation. We must consider that we must introduce it in the exact moment and combinated with the ovulation.
To understand the moment of AI, let's see a summary of what happened with a sperm before they are ejaculated, ejaculated in the, into the, the vagina. The semen When it is ejaculated into the, the vagina, find the first barrier that is the, the cervix. The, the sperm are matured, but they cannot fertilize yet.
The first barrier as the cervical falls and ribs, remove the seminal plasma and the sperm that does not move. So, the uterine tract has the, the physiological mechanism as cervical mucus secretion and muscle intermittent contraction to transport sperm to the oviduct without the active participation of those. So, there are two ways that the sperm can be transported.
One of them is the rapid phase transport. Where most of sperm has damaged membranes and are proba probably there. They don't move and remain in the lumen of the uterine tract.
Many of them are eliminated outside the uterus and a small number are transported to the oviduct with a few minutes and probably fertilize a few ova. This forward and backward transport is done by the muscle contraction and fluid secretion of, of the uterus. The other way is the prolonged phase transport where life and motile sperm can adhere to the epithelium or enter the folds of of the cervix and uterus.
And they can, can progress forward and reach the oviduct within being eliminated outside the uterus. The sperm that capable of fertilizing OA arrive, arrived in the oviduct about 8 hours after mating and are held, held in the Imus. That's, that's why we considered as the second barrier.
About 18 hours or more anti-lovulation. Then the sperm proceed to the site of fertilization near the junction of the Imus with the Apula. This is demonstrated by this work that evaluated the, the percentage of fertilized soba at different times after the start of heat where you can see when the The time of 12 hours before after there were 50% of fertilized over.
During, during this, this pass through the uterus to the oviduct, where sperm are deposited due the level of flavor of cholesterol, glucose aminoglycans, presence of calcium, also the contact of the sperm with the mucosa and the er the uterine fluid, the sperm and the sperm capacitation androsoming reaction occurs. Because of this, cell surface component as glucose, glu proteins in that were added in the in the epididymus are removed. Also, the sperm become, become hyperactivated, .
Also, changes in the acrosome membranes occurs, releasing hydraulic enzymes that allow that the sperm can, can join and penetrate the side. So, as, as we cannot see ovulation, we need to calculate when it happened. We know that the ovulation occurs between 24 and 30 hours after the start of the heat.
And the heat has the average duration of 2020 24 hours. That's why it's very important to recognize which cow is in heat and when is the heat start. In that picture, you can see the cow that's allowed itself to be mountain is in heat.
Because of that, the insemination should be done around 12 to 18 hours after he began. This is because we need to give the spare time to pass through the uterus and reach the oviduct, to fertilize of us. As sperm live approximately 20 to 30 hours and the over 10, 8 to 10 hours, it's better that the sperm arrived at the time of ovulation or little before, than the ova, than the ova, wait for the sperm.
The, the optimal time for insemination has been explored with high, medium, and low fertility pools based on percentage of non, non-return to heat. This word suggests that with boost of low fertility, it is possible to, to improve pregnancy results by delaying the time of AI and the end, at the end or after the end of a hit, but also several, several hours before ovulation. This is very, very important.
It has also been studied in embryo production, where the, the percentage of fertil fertilization was higher when the AI was performed 24 hours after the start of heat, but with lower embryo quality with, you can see few good quality embryos and more degenerates embryos. These works demonstrate that to obtain a balance between fertility and embryo quality, insemination should be done 12 hours after it began. We talk about the, the importance to recognize the sign of heat.
So, if we talk about insemination or bulls mount, the best time is, is around 12 to 18 hours after heat began. But heat, heat detection is not an easy task because many factors interact each other and can make it very difficult to determine when the heat begins. For example, environmental factors such weather, if the cow, are in, in mountains, and grassland, rainfall, temperature, also the breed of the animal, social interaction between them, etc.
There are a lot of factors. To avoid having detection, having the, to avoid, to have, to, to detect heat for many years, the moments of ovulation have been studied according to the application of different hormones, performing the insemination with the control of follicular phase. There are currently a lot of protocols that determinate the optimal time to perform fixed time insemination, controlling the follicular and luteal phase, depending on the type of animal which we are working with.
In order not to go into details, with the different protocols because there are a lot of protocols, those are, the most traditional protocols that represent the, the numerals exciting protocols. The use of GNRH PGF progesterone, estrogen allow us to manipulate the lural and follicular phase, of the female estro cycle and to perform the EI at a certain time. Always 12 hours on average before ovulation occurs.
This is true when we talk about conventional, conventional semen. I had to, to mention that there are still some countries in America, like Argentina, that, we, where the, the, the use of estrogen is not prohibited yet. But when we talk about sex-sorted semen, this change, although the, the exact reason is still not well determinated, but it is not that delaying the fixed time moment, the fixed time artificial, artificial insemination with respect to the removal of the device with progesterone, You, you could obtain better pregnancy rates as you show in this, in this, in this work.
This may be due because the, the process of sexes, of sexing sperm reactivates them and they not live the same time as non-sex sperm. Also, as well as, as that the straw of sex semen has less amount of sperm than conventional semen. That is why it is better to, to deposit them in the uterus closer to the moment of ovulation.
So now, we would like to, to open up a pool, a poll to explore how will you propose to, to use sustained motility lifetime measurement to help you make decision regarding AI on farm. No. Right, folks, the poll is up.
It's open. All you gotta do is just simply click on the answer that you feel, represents your, opinion best. It is something that is absolutely anonymous and, don't feel shy.
Give us your opinion, and, it really does help us to, or help the speakers to know where we're at and, and where we're going. So for the poll, I'd like to make a little introduction here. So the ID is we have on that slide, is the question we ask is how would you use this data, the time dependency measurement of the percentage progressive mortality to potentially guide.
Or improve artificial simulation protocols. So we have an example of K 3 sext semen straws, bull A and the percentage progressive mortality from the very top of the sexy men straws, we can maintain mortility for 2 hours. Bull B starts at a lower level, about 10%, show a little increase over the time and a decrease with the SML, a sustained mortality lifetime of about 80 minutes.
Bols is very similar, but the decrease in mortality happens over a shorter time. So the bull got a shorter SML. The question we're asking you here is which booze would you use for artificial insemination.
So which one would you use for based on the heat detection? Alright folks, as I said before, don't be shy. It is completely anonymous.
All you need to do is just click on the answer that best represents your opinion. We've got a few more coming in. I'm gonna give you another 10 seconds before I close this poll, and we move on to the next one.
That's it's starting to get more answers coming through now. Excellent. 5 more seconds.
Right, Vincent, let's move on to the next one. I don't see the next question. It's coming here.
All right, perfect. The next question is, So in the context of what we've seen with that Esteban explained around fixed time artificial insemination, which pool would you recommend fixed time AI? Pool A, pool B, or pool C?
I think we're starting to get used to this, guys, because the questions are being answered a lot quicker. That's fantastic, folks. Let's keep those responses coming in.
We'll give you another 15 seconds because I'm still getting a lot of answers coming through. Just click on the one that you feel most represents your opinion. And Let's close that and get to the next one then.
So In, in, in the context that Esteban explained that potentially what has been observed from academic research, sex semen tends to get better results, with fixed time artificial insemination at a slightly later time. In that respect, for which board would you delay insemination? Oh, Vincent, I think this one's got people really deeply thinking because the answers are a little bit slower coming in.
OK, come on guys, for which bulls would you delay insemination? Bull A, B, or C? Ah, here we go.
Right. And a couple of stragglers still coming in. Fantastic.
Right. Let's move on to the next one then. So, yeah, so something about double insemination.
Esteban did not have time to talk about a double insemination that may be used in some cases, based on, on again, the, the, the results in the progressive mortality, which one would you recommend double insemination? Excellent. They are starting to come in.
Guys, remember sitting on the fence gives you splinters. So let's get off that fence and give us your opinion on these questions. That's the way.
Yes, lots of them coming in now. I think I was being unfair there, guys. I think they were just deeply thinking about it.
So that's fantastic. Right, and let's move on to the last one. So something that Esteban didn't have a chance to talk about, but as you may well be aware, fertility success may depends on the age of, of cows, cows, hay faces, and the age and so on.
In, in that context, which boos would you use on older cows? Hm, I think we've got the hang of this now. And we've got quite a lot of answers coming in.
There's still quite a few people that haven't given us any answers yet. Oh, here they come. That's fantastic.
Come on guys. Another 10 seconds and then we will stop this one as well. Last stragglers are coming in now.
Oh, difficult question. Right. And that's now closed the polls.
Guys, just a little bit of a difference from what we normally do where we reveal all the results now. The, team from Dynaval, will make those results available to you in a special way after the webinar. So stand by, watch your emails.
They will be coming your way. Guys, I think we have a couple of questions coming through if that's OK with you? Yeah, that would be fantastic.
The first one I think is aimed mostly at Esteban. Esteban, you were talking about water in the artificial vagina for the the semen collection and that. Jose wants to know what temperature would you use?
And is it, do you need to be specific with it? It is very different between both because there are very, very, there is. A temperature for each ball, .
Maybe you, you must consider that, start with 38 or 39 degrees and this and then try in which temperature this ball is. Going to, to ejaculate. Maybe you must put a, a, a, a, a higher temperature or, and then you, you must put it down, but you must to check which temperature is the best for each bubble.
Fantastic. So it's it's a bit of trial and error sometimes if you're not getting the results that you're, you're hoping for. Vincent, speaking of, of results and that sort of thing, the DINA scan, is that, do you think, being widely used to set standards or do you think it's going to improve standards over time as my first part of the question that's come through.
The second part is, will it become the norm for different, studs and, and, semen providers to be using? So we, we, we believe, so Dynascam, really is the first technology that can be used across the industry. So it can be used at the farm, it can be used by vets, and the same technology can be used in the cement production or processing labs.
And, and this is the first, and yet if you measure these two environments on the same sample, you get very good reproducibility. So we believe that dinos can can help the industry by providing the same technology from all environments. On top of that, based on the time dependency and its precisions, we believe it can bring a new, a new tool as a quality control.
So there is automated stress test. Stress test is already used as a quality control, but not as a function of time. They can, let's say it's.
It's they perform at zero error points and then each labs may do a 2 errors or maybe a 3 hours or maybe anything else. So there is no clear standard across the stress test and the DNA scan can bring this, this new standards that could be used across the whole industry. Excellent.
Yes, and certainly it, it's a fantastic technology. So we hope that it does, become a, a standard measuring technique. There's a question, a couple of questions have come through, but basically, the difference in percentages of, failures of bulls for breeding soundness across different countries.
Is that something that you can briefly give us an answer on, Esteban, rather than, spending too much time? I don't want to run out of time on a whole other webinar. Sorry, Bruce, could you repeat the, the, the answer?
Yeah, the question is, the questions that have come through is basically about the percentages of bulls, failing breeding soundnesses exams and why they vary so dramatically between different countries. One of the examples was given, that Argentina, for example, is as high as 16.5%, whereas the UK is very low.
I do remember exactly the, the, the reason why is, is that that that pathology is is so high in Argentina in this, in this study, this work. I, I think, I don't remember exactly because there were a lot of years ago, but I, I can't remember, that could be possible, because the, the season of the year that was made the study and maybe in relationship with what the bulls ate, at that time. OK, fantastic.
I'd, I'd I'd like to comment that it was an interesting talk by, Ian McCormick, at the last BCVA conferences in the UK, last year, and, he performed 700 booths on this examination and did some statistics. On average, it was 1 out of 5 boos was failing the breeding sun examination. So it's not that far away from what Esteban has presented.
Oh, excellent, excellent. I, Esteban, I think this one is aimed at you as well. Peter wants to know, if a bull hasn't served for a long period of time, do you need to have him collected more than once as the first ejaculate may be stale?
If a, if a bull, maybe, maybe, it's, it's better that you put the bull with the, with the, with the cows, few days, . Before, because if, if there was such a long time that the bull doesn't serve, maybe could be could have some, some abnormalities in the, in the spermatozoa, but, but there is no, no a problem because, because with two or three ejaculates that they could be resolved. So, so if, if there were a lot of time without serve, maybe I, I prefer to put with some cows a few days and then it's, it's, it's going to be ready for, for the breeding season.
And the other thing you could do as a fail-safe is put his sperm through a DNA scan, and test it. And then you, will get motilities. There we go.
Yes, that, that, that's right. You, you could collected semen and, and and, and make the, the analysis and, and try to, to, to see what kind of, of problem could it be. Yeah.
I, I, the last question that we've got time for tonight, I think might be a whole other webinar on its own. So I'm gonna put you on the spot here, Esteban. One minute answer.
The factors that might influence semen quality after storage. If, if you, maintain, or you have control of the, the level of the the nitrogen, the, the nitrogen in the tank. You are not going to have any problem, but many of, of those problems that maybe this, this vet ask is about a bad, a bad way to, to conserve this, this, this nitrogen time because Everyone for forgot to refill the, the tank and, or if you, you, you need to see which, which which straw you have in, in that tank, you, you spend a lot of time with the straw outside the tank and it's, it's maybe, maybe damaged all the sperm.
Thank you for that. I think clearly the dyna scan can provide quality assurance on straws on farm where it really matters and is providing new insights to help guide artificial insemination and to improve productivity and sustainability. I'm sure the team will be delighted to help anybody on this webinar or anybody else who would like to learn more.
The details are on screen now, so please feel free to get hold of them. You can call them, you can email them, you can go online and go and have a look at their, at their website. And both Esteban and Vincent would be more than helpful to with answering those questions, for you and giving you more information.
I know they've got a team that, know what's going on and as Vincent said in the beginning, 30 minutes of training and away you go. So that's a, a fantastic, improvement in on-site technology. Gentlemen, thank you for your time tonight.
We really appreciate it. And, to Dinaville, thank you so much for your sponsorship of tonight. To everybody that was on the webinar, thank you for your time.
I hope you have learned something, as I know I have. It's amazing to see this technology is now available and can be used literally in the field, which is fantastic. So, thank you, gentlemen, and thank you to everybody for participating and giving us your time tonight.
Thanks everyone. To my to my co-presenter and hiding in the background, Dawn, as always, thank you very much for all your hard work and for making everything run smoothly. From myself, Bruce Stevenson, it's goodnight.
