Reducing cell density in boar semen doses

The savings in the number of cells per dose enables the boar station to produce more doses with the same number of boars – or to reduce the number of boars. By culling the lowest ranking boars’ money can be saved on feed, stalls, medication etc. and at the same time, the genetic index is increased. Typically up to 15-20% can be saved when changing from counting with a photometer to the NucleoCounter^® SP-100™.

The savings has been confirmed by a large number of customers using the the NucleoCounter^® SP-100™, including Danish Pig Production (have been using the NucleoCounter^® SP-100™ in every single station in Denmark for more than 10 years), Topigs Norsvin in Netherlands and Norway, PIC in U.K. and U.S., Carlo Genetics in Canada, GFS and NORT in Germany and CobiPorc in France – and many others.

Picture 1 – Shows the variations when counting a single semen dose several times with a photometer or even with a CASA system. The target concentration in this example is 3 billion cells in a dose in average. The green box is the +/- 5% envelope around the average that you want to be inside of. The red line at 2 billion cells is the lower threshold for fertility. The measurements (the red dots) varies significantly due to the variations from the photometer (or CASA system).

Picture 2 – Shows the measurements (of the same dose) with the NucleoCounter^® SP-100™ (the green dots). The CV for the SP-100™ is better than 3% and therefore the measurements are much more similar and within the green 5 % envelope.

Picture 3 and 4 – Shows that due to the much better repeatability for the NucleoCounter^® SP-100™ the average number of cells contained in a dose can be reduced. In this example, the number of cells can be reduced to an average of  2,2 billion cells/dose – without risking to ship doses with less than 2 billion cells that would impair litter size.