Farmed animal reproduction has grown into a multi-million dollar business. For years, in the horse racing field, racing champions have been selected to stud mares in hopes of providing an offspring that will similarly be a champion racer.
In the avian industry the breeding of avian such as turkeys has become its own industry. In particular, as the turkey industry has become more modernized not only have the turkey moved indoor to confinement facilities, a greater emphasis on efficiency within turkey operations has been emphasized. This is true among all facets of turkey production including reproduction.
In the avian field and in particular in the turkey industry artificial insemination is becoming more commonplace in the industry. In particular, semen is collected and then inseminated or delivered with a syringe or plastic straw into the oviduct. This process is expensive and has many drawbacks that have held back more widespread use of this technique. First, once semen is collected its spermatozoal viability can start to decrease after only an hour. Multiple solutions to this issue all have drawbacks, in particular, cooling the sperm to between 2-5° C. in a storage facility and then thawing for insemination can lead to increasing the viability for several hours, though this remains a short period of time. Thus often a semen extender must be added to the semen in addition to being cooled. The cooling storage facilities and extender are expensive and can decrease fertilization.
In addition, sperm production in avian is known to be effected by photoperiods. In particular, sperm production increases during spring time, or when light increases are sensed by the avian. Meanwhile, sperm production decreases during the fall time when photoperiods are decreasing over time.