Artificial insemination and synchronised natural breeding in Red
deer
MAF Technology, Invermay Agricultural Centre, Mosgiel, New Zealand
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production.
1991, 51: 327-332
Synchronised breeding systems involving 290 red deer hinds were
investigated in 5 experiments with fixed-time laparoscopic artificial
insemination (AI) following a synchronised oestrus and in 1 experiment
with synchronised natural breeding. Experiment 1 involved an
investigation of the potential for twinning; hinds were treated with
PMSG and inseminated before (March 1) or during (April 12) the normal
breeding season, with 29 and 40% respectively having multiple
ovulations. There was no effect of AI date on pregnancy rate (0.80 and
0.71 respectively) but a greater proportion of hinds which had multiple
ovulations. There was no effect of AI date on pregnancy rate (0.80 and
0.71 respectively) but a greater proportion of hinds which had multiple
ovulations and had not been lactating in the previous season were twin-
pregnant than hinds which had been lactating (0.19 and 0.62, P<0.05).
In other experiments AI was performed using red (R; n=70), Canadian
wapiti (CW; n=59) or CW x R hybrid (n=11) frozen-thawed semen with
pregnancy rates of 0.67, 0.66 and 0.82 respectively. Fresh Pere David's
deer x R hybrid semen gave a pregnancy rate of 0.61 (n=31). A pregnancy
rate of 0.84 was recorded for the synchronised natural mating of (CW x
R) males with red females (n=49). Overall 3% of the R pregnancies and
9% of the hybrid pregnancies failed to reach terms.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
Red deer; Cervus elaphus; artificial insemination;
oestrous synchronisation; breeding
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Last Updated 25-01-1997
