Artificial insemination in the cat

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Artificial insemination in the cat

• Alain Fontbonne
• DVM, PhD, Ass. Pr., Dipl.ECAR
• Alfort Veterinary College
• Paris, France

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Indications
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In the domestic cat

• Mating failure
• Low libido mainly in Persians
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Geographical or genetical exchanges of semen
• Unavailable males
• Castrated
• Too old or dead

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Induction of heats and ovulation
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Use of gonadotropins

• Equine chorionic gonadotropin eCG
• Long persistence in the organism
• One single injection is enough
• Human chorionic gonadotropin hCG

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Inconvenients of gonadotropins

• Ovarian hyperstimulation
• Developpement of secondary follicles
• Trouble of progesterone secretion during
  pregnancy
• Inconstant efficacy
• Repeated injections are imuno-sensibilising
• Less efficacy the second time

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Other approaches

• Mechanical stimulation of ovulation
• 5 series of stimulations at 30 minutes intervals

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Influence of anaesthesia on ovulation

• No anaesthesia during the pre-ovulatory period ?
• ? Insemination after ovulation ?
• But controversial
• cat 56 success if insemination performed before
  ovulation versus 21 after ovulation (Tsutsui
  et al. 2000)

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When to inseminate ?

• High interest of ovarian ultrasound

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Evolution des follicules de chattes (Malandain
et al. 2006)
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How to chech if ovulation was correctly induced ?

• Interest of blood progesterone assays

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Collection and conservation of cat semen
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Collection of semen
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Vagin Artificial vagina
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Electro-ejaculation
(matériel P-T Electronics, Boring, Oregon, USA)
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Various protocols
Platz
, 1978,
180
stim
entre 2 et 8 V (2s,3s,1s, 3s OFF)
è
28 millions spz/séance
1 V
Rigid extension of the hindlegs
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stim
5
min
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Quality and quantity of semen collected
Baudon 2003
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Uretral catheterisation
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Comparison uretral cateterisation
electro-ejaculation
Zambelli et al. 2006
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Semen conservation
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Semen conservation

• Conservation at room temperature
• Refrigeration at 4C
• Freezing in liquid nitrogen

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Semen conservation

• ? great difficulties due to bad quality semen in
  domestic and non-domestic felids

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Teratospermia in cats
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Cats often have teratospermic semen
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Teratospermia in cats

• Does it play a major role on infertility ?
• Which origin ?
• Lack of genetical diversity ?
• Consanguinity
• Hormonal origin ?
• Inadequate nutrition ?
• Stress ?
• Are they some compensatory mecanisms ?
• In the cat (Pukazhenthi et al. 2006)
• Testicular hypertrophia and increase of the
  number of seminiferous tubules
• Role of repeated matings ?

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Artificial insemination techniques
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In the cat

• First studies 20 years ago
• Thennothing more
• New recent interest

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Intra-vaginal inseminations
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Anatomy of the queen vagina
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Results

• fresh semen
• Sojka et al. 1970 54 (14/26) with doses of 50
  to 100 x 106 spermatozoids
• Using higher doses (80 x 106 spermatozoids),
  Tanaka et al. (2000), have obtained 78
  pregnancies (7/9)
• Baudon (2003) has obtained 4 pregnancies in 9
  queens inseminated in the vagina with only 4 to 9
  x 106 spermatozoids.
• with frozen semen, only one publication mentions
  a 11 success (6/56) (Platz et al. 1978).

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Intra-uterine inseminations
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Surgical inseminations

• laparotomy
• laparoscopy

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Transcervical catheterisation
Chatdarong et al. 2001
Zambelli et Cunto 2006
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Results

• Intra-uterine inseminations allow
• To use 5 to 10 times less spermatozoids than
  intra-vaginal inseminations
• Fresh semen
• Results highly variable
• Between 13 to 80 pregnancies with between 2 to
  20 millions spermatozoids.
• Frozen semen
• Tsutsui et al. (2000) 57 (8/14) after
  deposition in only one horn, with 50 millions
  spermatozoids
• Zambelli et al. (2006) frozen semen needs 5
  times more spermatozoids than fresh semen

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Intra-oviductal inseminations
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• Tsutsui et al. 2001
• 4 x 106 spermatozoids deposited in infundibulum
• 3 pregnancies in 7 inseminated queens

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Conclusion

• Many indications of artificial inseminations in
  the cat, but still low use by breeders
• New insemination techniques are less invasives

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• Thank you for your attention