Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, Bellevue, Washington, United States of America.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 17;6:28108. doi: 10.1038/srep28108.
Artificial insemination of dairy cattle is a common practice in the developing world that can improve farmer incomes and food security. Maintaining the fertilizing potential of frozen semen as it is manipulated, transported and stored is crucial to the success of this process. Here we describe simple technological improvements to protect semen from inadvertent thermal fluctuations that occur when users mishandle semen using standard equipment. We show that when frozen semen is mishandled, characteristics of semen biology associated with fertility are negatively affected. We describe several design modifications and results from thermal performance tests of several improved prototypes. Finally, we compare semen that has been mishandled in standard and improved equipment. The data suggest that our canister improvements can better maintain characteristics of semen biology that correlate with fertility when it is mishandled.
奶牛人工授精是发展中国家的一种常见做法，它可以提高农民的收入和粮食安全。在这个过程中，保持冷冻精液在处理、运输和储存过程中的受精能力至关重要。在这里，我们描述了一些简单的技术改进，以保护精液免受用户在使用标准设备时无意中造成的热波动的影响。我们发现，当冷冻精液被不当处理时，与生育能力相关的精液生物学特性会受到负面影响。我们描述了几种设计改进，并展示了几种改进原型的热性能测试结果。最后，我们比较了在标准设备和改进设备中不当处理的精液。这些数据表明，我们的罐式改进可以更好地保持在处理不当的情况下与生育能力相关的精液生物学特性。
