SUCCESS OF ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION IN GOATS: AN OVERVIEW

Globally there is growing demand for small ruminant production especially, goats for meat and milk purposes to feed the ever-increasing human population. Earlier goat breeding was generally practised by natural mating; but now artificial inseminations (AI) with elite buck semen are well in demand for improving herd production. Success rates of AI in goats varied widely with type of semen used, oestrus synchronization, insemination method, region, breed etc. In goats, pregnancy rate is comparatively higher by AI with chilled liquid semen (71 to 78%) as compared to frozen-thawed semen (21 to 57%). Intracervical insemination is widely used in goats and easy to perform within 2 to 3 min with a success rate of 59.8% using chilled semen and 43.9% using frozen-thawed semen. The trans-cervical insemination is difficult to perform due to highly complex cervical anatomy of goats, hardly 78.57% using chilled semen and 53.12% success rates are achieved using frozen-thawed semen. The success rate through laparoscopy aided trans-uterine deposition of semen yields higher pregnancy rates (60 to 80%) as compared to vaginal and trans-cervical AI. But laparoscopic insemination involves elaborate equipment and special skills. Under Indian conditions, frozen-thawed semen and intracervical insemination is an easier way to adopt in field conditions for AI in goats. Further, there is urgent need to standardize the semen freezing protocols and novel semen extenders which may be breed-specific to achieve higher conception rate in goats.