Present and future of frozen boar semen

There have been many advances since the beginning of the technique in the seventies. Improvements have been aimed at optimizing fertility parameters, which were between 20-30% lower than those from the use of fresh semen and litter size, and to improve litter size as litter size was 2-3 piglets smaller than conventional fresh semen.
The most significant changes have focused on:

• Improvement of the packaging methods to allow a homogeneous freezing and thawing (use of straws of 0,5 ml and FlatPack,)
• Changes in the speed of freezing and thawing (development of freezing curves and specific thawing speeds for porcine spermatozoa).
• Incorporation of bio-freezers that allow a precise and homogenous freezing in a large number of straws simultaneously.

These factors, coupled with accurate pre-selection of the boars to be frozen and the addition of compounds with antioxidant capacity to the freezing diluents, have led to the fact that at present 50% of thawed spermatozoa are viable And motile.
Semen Cardona uses the cryopreservation technique to provide doses of frozen semen to different countries such as Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Philippines, etc.