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Presentation to the Darley Flying Start Conference at Keeneland, Kentucky
July 2007

Junling Sun vs Elizabeth Pathak
Debate: The thoroughbred industry needs to introduce artificial insemination

The argument for: Junling SunJunling Sun

When artificial insemination began to be used on other animals, the argument against thoroughbred artificial insemination never stopped. In my opinion I think artificial insemination can be introduced into the thoroughbred industry.

Don’t forget Barbaro. In theory, Barbaro could still get a mare pregnant. A stallion can father foals through artificial insemination even after he’s dead. But Barbaro was a special kind of horse called a Thoroughbred.

The Jockey Club has never allowed artificial insemination. Sperm are easier to transport and dilute and can impregnate more mares than live covers, so AI could produce a glut of thoroughbreds born from popular stallions and mares. Some breeders believe this could result in the over proliferation of offspring from particularly desirable stallions, and limit genetic diversity. If too much of a thoroughbred's sperm were available, it would be less rare, and perhaps less valuable. However I think Artificial Insemination is not a bad thing for Thoroughbreds.

1 - How many mares can a stallion breed by artificial insemination? One ejaculation can breed 10 mares with fresh or chilled sperm. 360 days per year × 10 mares/day=3,600 mares. When we do natural breeding, a stallion can cover 4 times per day, and 8 months one year, and he can cover 1000 mares one year.

2 - However, in fact a super stallion only breeds over 300 mares one year. It depends on mares’ conditions. On average a stallion breeds about 30 mares; it depends on nominations and marketing too. In addition, chilled semen fertility is 60%, frozen semen fertility 35% and fresh semen fertility 65%. Frozen semen is not recommended because of thoroughbred age registration system. A pregnancy requires 3 cycles using frozen semen, 1.8 cycles using natural or fresh semen insemination. So, frozen semen insemination will not be popular. The mare’s number is restricted by mares’ conditions when we do fresh or chilled semen insemination. Its estimated a stallion can breed 1,200 mares a year with no breaks, when we consider mares’ condition. In fact 500 mares can be covered by a stallion with AI now. However, some stallions have covered near to 400 mares in one year by natural breeding.

3 - There is no proof that artificial insemination can improve the breeding speed significantly. There are enough stallions now, but mare pregnancy rate is about 80%. The population growth of thoroughbred depends on mares’ number and pregnancy rate but not stallions’. On Average a mare has 10 foals in her life. There is no proof that artificial insemination can make a mare produce more foals in her life when mare pregnancy rate is still 80% even lower or little bit higher. Thoroughbred population explosions could not happen.

4 - Artificial inseminations could probably shrink the thoroughbred gene pool. However the smaller gene pool is not a bad thing. Stallion location and commercial breeding restrict gene improvement. How much in breeding even now we do live cover?! The traditional pedigree theory leads the commercial breeding. This is a key problem of so much inbreeding. Artificial insemination can break the traditional pedigree theory. Attention, when you talk about banning artificial insemination, it’s like using traditional physical theory to talk about the phenomenon of quanta or Einstein theory. If we have ten stallions totally, we can avoid 9 generations line breeding. Frozen and chilled semen can break the location restriction well. It’s true that stallion shuttle improved the thoroughbred gene pool because it breaks the location restriction and increases the mare number to the stallion, which is Dr. John Digby’s research result. Artificial insemination breeding more mares can improve thoroughbred gene pool. In Australia, since standard bred started using artificial insemination, the harness speed records were broken each year. In dairy cow and cattle industries, there are very few bulls in the world, but the cow and cattle gene pools are not bad in such a long time. In thoroughbred, horse developing still in the rule of Darwinism. The only difference is that the selection criteria is not fight or flight but racing. Only G1 genes are kept in stallions. If we make a stallion as a center, his gene radiate to mares as the round, more mares bigger round, and then bigger cross areas between the rounds. Cross makes thoroughbred gene pool balance and developing.

5 - Artificial Insemination will break the current thoroughbred industry system and build a new one. Stallion shed needs less staff. Nomination need more staff for competition. Semen bank and express will be new jobs. For stallion stations, the semen production is more effective and less cost. There will be more profit for stallion farms. But the stallion farms will be less. Although a stallion’s progeny will be more at sales, people still will make a new rule or standard to judge horses. The new rule could stand on the mare’s family more than on stallion. The traditional pedigree opinion to select horse must be broken and improved. But there are only still low percent of good horses at sales. The price could not decline. However, the breeder can get more profit because the stud fee is lower. When we trace back of the thoroughbred industry history, we can find that people have been trying to breed more mares to a stallion. The mare’s number that a stallion can breed has almost 4 or more times to the beginning. The industry hasn’t been destroyed but developed. Developing is the truth for every thing in the world. But the splitting developing will shake the industry even destroy the industry like an earthquake. So the mare number restriction should be set up at first.

6 - Artificial insemination would lead to reduced risk of the spread of both venereal diseases and non-venereal disease such as equine influenza, strangles and equine infectious anemia . One interesting and helpful break-through is the ability to treat semen to reduce the natural bacteria content, therefore reducing the risk of uterine infection in prone mares . T he risk of injury can occur with violent mares or stallions with a natural cover. Artificial insemination can completely remove this risk .

7 - We all know of some stallions that have libido or semen problems every year. When we use artificial insemination, there is only one ejaculation one day at most or once every other day, the stallion can have good rest and recover the sperm quality and quantity.

8 - Artificial insemination will make the imported mares disappear, and the shuttle stallions reduce.The transportation risk of stress, disease and injury will be removed or reduced. And the quarantine inconvenience will never happen. Artificial insemination makes it possible to breed a mare to practically any stallion in the same hemisphere without so much as trying to load your mare into a trailer, not to mention avoiding the mare care fees that often stack up at stud farms, especially if the mare doesn't take immediately.

9 - John Sparkman wrote in Thoroughbred Times about "the glacial pace of change in the tradition-bound Thoroughbred breeding industry." He concluded: "Sticking our head in the sand is not an acceptable response." I conclude that person who bans Artificial insemination is like a silkworm, making a pod and locking himself inside it.

10 - Vested interest groups who can benefit from the traditional pedigree theory are the block to break the current industry rule (including betting). Artificial insemination will make a new rule of thoroughbred industry. The new rule will be more global which is the trend of every industry in the world. Over self-protection will shrink the whole thoroughbred industry in the future. The shrink has been happening in Japan. Live cover is one of over self-protection and restricts the socialization and global trend. Artificial insemination can be introduced in to thoroughbred industry in my opinion.

The argument against: Elizabeth Pathak

Liz Pathak

Introduction

The argument is “The thoroughbred industry needs to introduce artificial insemination”. I will be arguing that it should remain banned. This is a topic that has been revisited numerous times over the years and warrants serious consideration.

History

Artificial insemination, or AI, of the horse has been around a long time. The first report in the horse tells the story of an Arab chieftain who stole the semen of an adversary’s prized stallion, inseminated his best mare and produced a champion offspring. This story dates to 1322. In the late 1700’s, as the Stud book in thoroughbreds as we know it was starting to take shape, several incidences of AI were reported but the practice quickly fell out of favour. In sport horses around the world, AI is used on a regular basis and it has shaped the industry of the two other main racing breeds in North America, the Quarter Horse and the Standardbred.

Jockey Club Position

The Jockey Club is in charge of the registration of all thoroughbreds in North America and the maintenance of the American Stud book. They are highly committed to ensuring the integrity of the American Stud Book. One of their most important responsibilities is to maintain the long-term viability and genetic diversity of the breed in order to ensure its future well-being. They have stated that “Today’s thoroughbred is the result of centuries of careful, competent nurturing” and that they will not put this heritage at risk. They are firmly against AI and it is written into their rule book that to be registered as a thoroughbred, a horse must be conceived by natural cover.

The framework for their decisions is based on the question: “Would the legacy of our decisions on this matter 50 or 100 years from now be a better, or weaker thoroughbred?” They believe that as an organization dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, the short- and long-term welfare of the Thoroughbred breed and the sport of Thoroughbred racing are best served by the rules they have in place. The American Jockey club is not alone in this belief. The International Stud Book Committee has written into the International Agreement of Breeding and Racing that artificial insemination in Thoroughbreds be absolutely and definitely banned.

Currently, in order to be recognized as a Thoroughbred for racing or breeding purposes by all major stud books worldwide, a foal must be the product of natural cover. This is not a local or national decision but truly an international one.

Rebuttals to Arguments for AI

The debate is revisited time and time again because, with the improvements of veterinary medicine, there seem to be several scientific arguments to support the use of AI. One such argument is that the use of AI permits disease control, both venereal and infectious. Realistically, with the way sheds are run today and the measures in place to ensure the reproductive and general health status of the animals involved, the risk of disease transmission is quite low. In fact, with the multiple inseminations often required when utilizing AI, the risk of uterine contamination may even be increased and certain microorganisms such as equine arteritis virus can survive in cooled or frozen semen. Another argument for AI is the idea that it decreases the risk of injury to the mare and stallion. Again, with proper management, ensuring that the mare is in fact ready to be bred in good standing estrus, with safe facilities, good footing and good stallion handling, the risk of injury with live cover is minimal. The argument that AI will increase pregnancy rates is very questionable because although the potential is there to maximise fertility, much more responsibility is in the hands of the farm management and if AI is not correctly practiced, fertility rates can fall dramatically. Although on the surface these scientific arguments support the use of AI, on closer inspection, one can see that with good management and veterinary practices, natural cover is a safe and efficient means of reproduction.

Arguments against: genetic, economic, legal, traditional

Historical arguments against artificial insemination had their basis in wives tales, ignorance and sentiment. Frederico Tesio believed that the sexual act itself transmitted energy to the next generation. Some felt AI reduced the thoroughbred to the level of farm creatures raised for their meat or milk. Others feared that the foals would be weak and malformed, that mares would become sterile, that offspring would be degenerate and that the sex ratio would be altered. It offended people’s sensibilities to go against nature.

Although these theories have been disproved, there are still several strong arguments against its introduction. The arguments centre around genetic, economic and legal issues and are closely interrelated. The basis for the arguments is rooted in the stallion book size. AI allows the potential for the overuse of popular stallions. With ideal management and the use of ultrasound, it would be possible for a single stallion to inseminate thousands of mares in a breeding season.

If breeders focus on relatively few popular stallions, the breed will undergo a reduction in genetic diversity. With the narrowing of the genetic base, the perpetuation of genetic defects will increase and the adaptability of the breed will decrease. Thoroughbreds already have very low genetic variability compared to other breeds of horses. By further decreasing the gene pool, the breed risks inbreeding to the point that no further improvements would be possible through selection. There is already question as to whether the thoroughbred has reached the limits of its performance. It is not known whether this is due to limits of physics or related to a genetic variation problem. The potential exists to reach a point where the genetic diversity was so low that industry would have no other option than to open up the stud book to allow further improvement in the breed.

A study on Standardbreds investigated the effect that AI could have on genetic variability, through its ability to allow breeders to impregnate a large number of mares with only a few stallions. The study showed a significant decrease in genetic variability over a 20 year period. One particular gene marker that existed in 1% of the breed in the 1960’s was found in approximately 20% of the population by the 1990’s as a result of the popularity of one stallion and his sons. Although this marker did not cause a problem and no harmful genetic defects were discovered, the potential is there. When the study was extrapolated to thoroughbreds via computer simulation, a decrease in genetic variability was noticed at 200 mares/stallion and became dramatic at 500 mares/stallion. John Digby, a veterinarian and keeper of the Australian Stud Book posed the question: “After 250 years of the most rigorous selection that any domestic animal has been subjected too, I believe we need to ask ourselves whether it is wrong to encourage even tighter selection.”

The potential economic effects of introducing AI are far reaching. They range from effects on the individual stud farms to wider industry effects. It is impossible to determine how devastating these effects would be on the industry because it is impossible to predict the future. It is imperative, however, that they are seriously considered.

AI results in an increase in the cost of covering an individual mare. At least 20 mares a year must be bred at a particular farm in order to justify the use of AI due to the cost of implementing the technology. In order for AI to be correctly practised, specialized equipment is necessary and a well-equipped laboratory is expensive. In addition, the onus of conception would fall on the stud farms where the mares are based which raises the question of how realistic it would be for stallion farms to offer live foal guarantees.

Most importantly, our industry no longer revolves around what a horse can earn on the racetrack, but what he or she can earn as a bloodstock prospect. If the market were flooded with large numbers of the offspring of only the most popular stallions, it follows that the demand for those offspring, and thereby their value, would decrease. Permitting AI would greatly affect the numbers of mares bred to individual stallions and consequently the total number of stallions being bred. The resultant effects on the economics of the industry could be devastating to many participants. There would be serious repercussion to the boarding facilities and transport companies. Smaller stallion farms would suffer and would have fewer opportunities to develop a top sire. You never know where your next influential stallion will come from and with the introduction of AI it is very possible that that stallion would never get a chance to prove himself. Where would our breed be today without stallions like Danzig and Mr. Prospector? Would they have had a chance if AI were in use?

And what of the main driving force behind our industry, the betting public? Decreasing the number of stallions makes for a less exciting gambling product and our industry relies on that revenue for its survival.

But why not just limit the book size, might be a question that pops into your mind? Depending on the country you reside in, the legal terminology differs but the basic premise remains the same: restricting the number of seasons a stallion owner is allowed to sell constitutes a restraint of free trade. In the Standardbred industry in the late 1970’s the United States Trotting Association attempted to restrict the number of mares that could be bred to a stallion in a given year. The rule was passed but rescinded before it took effect due to the threat of lawsuits. Opening up the registry to allow AI not only has the potential to negatively affect the breed due to increased stallion books but leads to a number of other ethical issues which could follow including the potential for use of a stallion’s semen after his death and the potential for embryo transfer. Embryo transfer is a technique involving the collection of multiple eggs from a mare, artificial fertilization of those eggs and implantation of the resultant fertilized eggs into a surrogate mare. Embryo transfer is an especially concerning practice for two reasons: it leads to the ability of a mare to produce multiple foals in a given year and it brings to mind the question of the effect uterine environment has on the developing foetus. There are few proponents of AI that encourage lifting the ban without the caveat that book sizes be limited to prevent the previously mentioned problems. With the current legal system and litigious nature of society, this appears to be an impossible task.

Conclusion

Artificial insemination is banned in the thoroughbred around the world in order to maintain the integrity of the breed and to promote its success into the future. Although at first look, it may appear that the decision is based on tradition and sentiment, further investigation reveals that most common arguments for artificial insemination are weak and the arguments against its use have far reaching and serious implications to the breed. There is no question that the introduction of AI can not be allowed until the legal implications of the technique and its control have been determined and limitations on the stallion book size have been established. I question whether this is possible. Market forces alone cannot be relied upon to prevent the potential problems associated with breeding large numbers of mares to individual stallions. If these forces are unable to check the number of mares bred in a timely fashion, the genetic integrity of the breed may be irretrievable. It is important that we look beyond the four or five generations of a family that an individual breeder will be witness to and consider the consequences of actions we take today on the breed’s success in the future. There is a need for investigation into the long-term effects of increased book size on the genetics of the thoroughbred and the economics of the industry before we could ever consider the introduction of AI. Tradition alone cannot dictate what route to take in the regulation of our breed, but it certainly comes into play and in cases like this it appears that the traditional way is the way to go.

 

Click here for a complete list of July 2007 Keeneland assignments