Application of reproductive technology to the Australian livestock industries

Abstract

Current use of reproductive technology in the Australian livestock industries is limited, though it increased in line with higher prices for beef and wool through the 1980s. The required techniques, many of which were developed in Australia, are available and the level of expertise is comparable to the best in the world. However, the extensive pastoral industries do not readily lend themselves to these procedures. Only in the dairy industry is artificial insemination used to a significant degree. On the other hand, application of the technology in the pastoral industries is confined largely to studs and breeding cooperatives which provide breeding animals for producer flocks and herds. Hence the impact of applied technology may be more widespread than first appears. Until recently, little regard was paid to application of the technology along sound breeding principles. Artificial insemination and multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET) have not been used so much in planned breeding programmes aimed at local improvement of stock, but more to proliferate genes of reputedly superior stock, imported either from overseas or elsewhere in Australia. This is particularly true of MOET, where the incentive to use it is commonly a short term cash gain made from proliferating breeding stock of a particularly valuable and usually novel strain or breed. Recent technological improvements which render the use of reproductive technology cheaper and more effective will lead to its more widespread use in commercial practice. Techniques for embryo freezing and splitting have been greatly simplified and quickly put into practice. The novel livestock technologies of in vitro oocyte maturation and fertilization have already found commercial application overseas. Fecundity-enhancing products have also been adopted by the livestock industries. There is potential value for greater use of reproductive technology in the livestock industries provided it is implemented according to sound breeding principles and provided associated management practices are applied simultaneously.