May 24, 2010

Five Lab Puppies are World's First Sex-Selected Dogs

Five labrador retriever puppies are the world’s first dogs to have their sex selected prior to conception. The cell-sorting technology was developed by XY Inc. The black lab puppies, three female and two male, are part of a line of animal species that the company has demonstrated can be successfully artificially inseminated with sex-sorted sperm to achieve the desired outcome — female or male offspring.

To date, XY(R) Sex Selection Technology has been used to produce hundreds of thousands of sex-selected offspring of various animal species. Cattle, horses and sheep have benefited from this technology, which also has been successful in elk, domestic cats, the bottle-nosed dolphin and the Mediterranean water buffalo. In this recent case, though, these lab puppies are the first dogs born that have had their sex selected prior to conception.

XY Inc. holds worldwide licenses and patents to the technology.

The successful births of the lab puppies were a collaborative effort among XY Inc.’s research team; Dr. Greg Burns, DVM, owner of South mesa Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins; and, of course, Morgan’s Chocolate Rose, the patient mom of the rambunctious brood. Rose is owned by Steve Huffman and his family. Huffman is a laboratory technician with XY Inc.

In the case of seeing-eye dogs, Labrador Retrievers, particularly females, are a desired breed due to their calm and gentle disposition and intelligence.

While XY(R) Sex Selection Technology guarantees at least a 90-percent accuracy rate in selecting for the desired offspring in which the technology has been rigorously field-tested and used in breeding for many years. The Labrador Retriever litter of sex-selected puppies was 60 percent accurate in delivering the desired sex, which was female.

A typical dog ejaculate contains up to 1-billion sperm and decreases rapidly after the first semen collection. In this case of the lab puppies, researchers were able to sort 46-million sperm on the first day; 21.5-million, the second day; and 27-million, the third day. Dr. Burns used the fresh sperm to artificially inseminate Rose three times over a five-day interval.

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Each AI dose typically contains 100-million sperm, and over the breeding service several doses are used.

Rose, the mother of the lab puppies, was AI bred with less than 95-million total sorted sperm. Rose, who is a first-time mother, had no complications during the pregnancy or delivery of the five pups. Dr. Burns noted a typical litter size for a female labrador retreiver is five to 10 lab puppies with a mean of seven. This litter was no exception, with the litter developing normally over the typical nine-week gestation cycle.

Five Lab Puppies are World's First Sex-Selected Dogs