Anyway, back to our old semen and how we came to have access to it.
After our great success in 1976, we received a request from Sydney University to collect and freeze semen for future research into long term freezing of semen. We chose five of our most influential stud dogs, although at that stage there were no real plan s for when it would be used.
In fact for many years we had trouble finding out if it was even still in existence, as by then the rabies ban had been lifted, the University had moved on to other challenges and everyone forgot about the procedure for a number of years. From our point o f view also, the devastation created by parvovirus meant that we would not risk our precious small store until the threat of this hideous disease appeared to be well and truly under control, so the whole project went "on hold". We were very lucky, because several major stud dogs in other breeds were also involved in this programme and the semen of only a very few can now be located.
Towards the end of the eighties various Australian breeders began to have success with recently imported semen in many breeds, and our veterinarian, Dr Robert Zammit, contacted us and said that our old semen had been handed on to him by Sydney University as he had been working on an advanced degree in Veterinary Science with Dr Ian Martin when our original insemination took place. We carefully assessed our bitches and decided that the time was right, as we currently have the best possible genetic pool for re-incorporating these famous males.
As a result, another step forward was made in the world's knowledge and utilisation of frozen semen. When it was collected in 1976, the "shelf life" of the semen was estimated to be around 25 years. We have now proven that AT LEAST 19 years is feasible an d we will continue to use our long-stored semen as the "right" bitches present themselves for these matings.
When the 1976 insemination took place, we opted for an inter-uterine surgical implant rather than risk reducing effectiveness by the alternate method which uses a glass pipette. In fact at this early stage there wasn't any real alternative as the advanced type of pipette being successfully used in Norway where the majority of breeding on the fur farms was by A.I. was not then available in Australia, and we subsequently brought one home for Dr Spira. He later used this on the remainder of the Abra Cadabra semen for another of our bitches, but - probably purely co-incidentally - that time we were not successful in obtaining a pregnancy.
The fantastic result, as we have said, was four puppies. The dam had previously produced a litter of nine, so this was in keeping with the advice at the time to expect half an average litter size
The pups were larger birth weight than we had been used to and grew more rapidly, thanks to their hybrid vigour, but their size at adulthood was commensurate with the bloodlines involved and so was their phenotype.
Interestingly enough, they also had only one head and four legs each, despite the dire suggestions from some sources that performing an artificial insemination was bad enough, but to do this using semen that had been placed in a glass straw, then frozen, then packaged into a canister with dry ice, then travelled on an aircraft for more than 24 hours, then been thawed and finally placed directly into the uterus of the bitch by a surgical procedure, was simply not "normal" and therefore fraught wih all the dangers of the unknown. Impossible as it is in the light of today's innumerable successes with frozen semen, several otherwise intelligent people genuinely expected the puppies to be born with abnormalities or deformities.
Now that success has been achieved with semen that has been stored for so long, many people are again having trouble coping with this amazing technology. They feel sure that deterioration MUST take place, or that some previously unknown disease will emerg e, a bit like what happens in episodes on TV about the Starship Enterprise.The matings we are doing with our pedigrees of frozen semen A.I. on line-bred frozen semen A.I. are simply beyond the comprehension of many people.
Anyway, back again to the 1976 litter. The puppies themselves were of good type and quality but not sensational show prospects, but then first generation from live imports is also often not quite what is expected, and the breeder in both cases must be pat ient and allow the time necessary to get to that all-important second generation.
This was definitely the case with us, and when in 1979 the pick male, Calahorra Anglo Saxon (AI) was mated to our famous Royal BIS winner and top producer, Ch Calahorra Requiem, the result was, genetically, one of the most important Afghans we have been p rivileged to own, Ch Calahorra Rowena.Her pedigree carried two lines to Dutchy and one to Emir of Gray Dawn.
Rowena not only produced seven significant champions, but eleven years later, in 1990, our top three winners were her children, and today she is still behind all of our currently dominant show and producing stock, including the three "miracle" litters we have already referred to, each of these incidentally produced by surgical implant. Therefore, if we had not been part of the pioneering work done with frozen semen in 1976, our gene pool today would be a very different one, as you can clearly see.
At the time, however, despite world wide interest in the technicalities of the achievement, the Australian breeders basically said "That's nice, but ho hum, we've gone beyond the English Afghans anyway, we're all off after the modern American type now,"an d as I have said, at that stage we could not import semen from anywhere but England.
METHODS AND TECHNIQUE
Of foremost importance is the selection of the recipient bitch - not just for her quality but also, which may surprise you, for her potential to conceive to this technique, and many times this comes down to the breeder's instinct that this bitch is "righ t". For no explainable reason, some simply do not conceive to frozen semen although all the tests indicate they will do so, but these same bitches regularly whelp to natural matings. When this happens, especially with proven bitches, it is all the more di sappointing.
Also, despite the greatest amount of knowledge and talent, it is still possible that the bitch you choose for the insemination may not be the right one for that particular dog after all. Most people know how often a less famous bitch outproduces "the show star" of the kennels, despite that star being given every opportunity to also be a great producer. There is always an element of luck involved in the choice of two breeding animals, no matter how smart we may think we are when we make that decision - with the costs and hassles of frozen semen, the element of luck seems to be even greater and of course this is increased if the sire is a total outcross.
Wendye Slatyer July 97
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