AI Advantages And Disadvantages Essay

Advantages of AI

Advantages of AI were observed in the 1950s when successful extension and cryopreservation of bull semen allowed for the collection of valuable sperm at one site and the production of hundreds of doses that could be stored for a period of time to be shipped to distant farms far from the stud site. The ability to breed females without moving the sire to a new area for natural mating increased the rate of genetic progress, reduced the need for bulls or boars on the farm, limited the spread of venereal diseases, and improved the accuracy of reproductive records.

In pigs, although the collection and preservation of semen in liquid form was successful, cryopreservation caused problems with sperm survival, damage and fertility.

Specialization in AI centres lead to more emphasis and management on boar health, housing and feeding and for more time to assess semen production and quality, which could help identify problems with boar fertility. The successful application of an AI centre or breeding farm, needs practical consideration of the size of the farm, the housing system and the availability of labour. These factors vary among farms, with the size of the farm and housing design influencing the labour requirements. Labour is critical on a breeding farm and is influenced by the size of the breeding group, the frequency of weaning, the housing design, the method of oestrus detection and the AI method used. Improvements in housing systems and bigger funds for the breeding herd have supported farms to captivate the economic system, with advantages in breeding with AI, production, labour, purchasing, transportation and marketing. Swine breeding farms will likely follow the inclination of increasing in size and decreasing in number. These farms will continues to face limitations for animal density, proximity to human populations, animal welfare, disease control and regulations concerning air, water, environment and food

The foundation of the system relies on maintaining the reliability of traits in pure bred breeds and selection within for improvement. The modern breeding pyramid consists of a nucleus of purebred maternal breeds and lines that are used to create crossbred F1 Maternal-line, multiplier females. Depending on the number of breeds used, these multipliers may be mated to purebred or crossbred sires for producing commercial sows which are then mated to purebred or crossbred terminal sires for market pig production. Therefore, the modern production scheme relies heavily on the accuracy of the entry of breeding females and semen into each production level. It is important to monitor these systems carefully to prevent the entry of any diseases, by closing the herd to a new animal entering and introducing new genes only through the use of semen. Herd closure can greatly reduce the risk of disease, but requires a portion of the herd dedicated toward generation of internal replacements, with increasing the degree of inbreeding in the herd over time. The genetic selection scheme improves numerous terminal traits including feed efficiency, carcass measures, growth performance and maternal traits such as milking ability, litter size and litter survivability. Genetic improvement accelerated through the use of AI and by selecting sire traits enables widespread and efficient distribution of economically