Cryopreservation of dog semen: a review

Success with artificial insemination of frozen dog semen has been limited. The major problems are associated with identifying the time of optimal fertility for insemination of the bitch, achieving intrauterine deposition of spermatozoa, the variation in post-thaw semen quality between individual dogs and poor spermatozoal survival after freeze-thawing. Many of these problems have been investigated and, to some extent, overcome; however, poor post-thaw spermatozoal longevity remains a problem and results from the lack of ordered logical studies of cryopreservation. The purpose of this paper is to review studies of dog spermatozoal preservation and insemination and to highlight those areas of cryopreservation that have been neglected.