2011 CREW ReView - The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

®Cat Signature Project UpdatesPallas’ Cats from Artificial Insemination –Why it MattersIn June, one of the Cincinnati Zoo’s Pallas’ cats, Sophia,gave birth to three kittens – the first produced byartificial insemination (AI). While it is always exciting toproduce the first offspring of an exotic species with somenew technique, that accomplishment, in itself, is relativelymeaningless if that first litter turns out to be the onlyone. At CREW, our primary goal is not “world’s firsts”,but to develop and apply appropriate scientific tools tohelp conserve endangered wildlife. So we produced theworld’s first Pallas’ cats by AI – why does that matter?Well, first, this AI procedure resulted in the birth of geneticallyvaluable kittens. Sophia and our male, Buster,were paired initially for natural breeding but were not behaviorallycompatible. Most zoo breeding recommendationsare based on pedigree analysis to maximize geneticvariation, but sometimes these prospective mates need alittle help. Second, our success this year with this newtechnique – laparoscopic oviductal (LO) AI – in four catPallas’ cat kittens produced by AIspecies is changing our assisted reproduction strategy for small wild cats. By depositing semen deep into the oviducts, highpregnancy percentages can be obtained using only a few million spermatozoa, especially important with small cat malesthat do not produce large sperm numbers. Third, this AI approach may allow us to use frozen semen more effectively. Inour Pallas’ cat research in Mongolia, we collected, froze and imported semen from ten wild males. Successful AI with thesefrozen samples would create gene flow between isolated populations without transporting any live animals while conservingmore genetic diversity within liquid nitrogen tanks. That helps us to ensure the future survival of Pallas’ cats and THAT iswhy it matters.For our Next Trick - Going LO with Frozen Semenin CatsThe novel laparoscopic oviductal artificial insemination method (LO-AI), developedin domestic cats by CREW scientists, already is helping zoos to propagatetheir imperiled wild cat populations. Just in the past year, we have used this AI approachto produce pregnancies in three exotic cat species, the ocelot, sand cat, andPallas’ cat (see story above). Maintaining a diverse gene pool is crucial to speciessurvival, but finicky felines don’t always breed well naturally and AI provides onepossible remedy. For AI to be most effective for genetic management, incorporationof frozen semen is required, but the freezing process may compromise spermfunction. In a recent study, we assessed the relative fertility of freshly-collected vs.frozen semen for LO-AI. Sixteen domestic cats were inseminated in one oviduct usingfresh spermatozoa (~1 million) from one male and in the opposite oviduct usingtwice the number of frozen-thawed spermatozoa (~2 million) from a second male.DNA samples from the resulting kittens were analyzed by geneticists at the Universityof California to determine paternity. Of the 16 females, half became pregnant,giving birth to 36 kittens. Paternity results proved that eight of these kittens wereconceived with frozen semen, but a higher percentage of kittens (78%, 28/36) wereproduced with fresh sperm suggesting fertility was reduced in the cryopreservedsamples. While promising, these early results indicate alterations in sperm freezingmethods, timing of AI or total sperm numbers may be needed to improve AI successin cats when using frozen semen.Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife • Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden 32011 CREW ReView.indd 3 11/22/11 1:59 PM