Cryopreservation of canine sperm: Preserving for better breeding

Korte beschrijving

At the end of the 19th century, the original functional dogs were divided into morphotypes to create the unique phenotypic diversity that modern breeds display. Breed creation, however, has caused the gene flow between distinct dog populations to cease, resulting in a loss of genetic diversity in many dog breeds. Chapter 1 explains how domestication and breed creation took place and details the genetic strategies developed to improve genetic diversity in dogs. Among these, assisted reproduction techniques are particularly helpful in optimizing breeding strategies but are currently limited to artificial insemination and sperm cryopreservation in dogs. Unfortunately, cryopreservation of dog spermatozoa is hampered by individual variability in sperm cryotolerance, confining its application to a selection of dogs. Therefore, this thesis aimed to identify ejaculates of suboptimal quality and optimize sperm cryopreservation in dogs (chapter 2).