Sexed semen technology in cattle: A revolutionary technique in Indian dairy industry
Dharmveer Singh, Pramod Kumar, KS Nehra and Ajay Kumar
Desired sex either female or male which is produce from semen having X or Y bearing sperm is known as sexed semen. Sexed semenincrease the genetic progress in a herd by increases the number of superior heifers and good male germplasm from elite bullswhich is usedfor future breeding programme.Various methodsare developed based on density gradient centrifugation or swim-up, sex specific antibodies, free flowelectrophoresis and flow cytometry that efficiently separate bovine semen into fractions containing higherconcentrations of X or Y chromosome bearing sperm. Flow cytometry is the only proven method for semen sexing to be commercially viable more than 90% accuracy toproduce calves of desirable sex. Other methods for sex sorting of sperm (Albumin Gradient/ Percoll gradient/ Gradient swim down, Centrifugal counter current distribution, Free flow electrophoresis, Identification of H-Y antigen, Genetic approaches etc.) have also emerged though these techniques further needs fine tuning for commercial viability. This paper aimed to review the sexed semen methodology, utility of sex sorted semen, benefits and limitation of sex sorted semen.