Frozen semen technology is scientifically known as cryopreservation also known as sperm banking is a procedure to preserve sperm cells. This technology is widely use in the goat farms. Now a days, this technology has been greatly accepted by farmers due to its great results with no side effects. It can be used for sperm donation where the recipient wants in a different time or place. Frozen semen is a method of preserving semen for future artificial insemination, even after the death of the donor.
Using frozen semen for dairy cattle has been done since the 1950s. Semen in the early days (before 1950s) of artificial insemination was delivered everyday to technicians as the semen was not frozen at that time. In those early days semen was extended into a type of bottle, or test tube, kept at low temperatures, and delivered to technicians usually every day.
Artificial insemination (AI) was the first great biotechnology applied to improve reproduction and genetics of farm animals. It has had an enormous impact worldwide in many species, particularly in dairy cattle. The acceptance of AI technology worldwide provided the impetus for developing other technologies, such as cryopreservation and sexing of sperm, estrous cycle regulation, and embryo harvesting, freezing, culture and transfer, and cloning.
The history of development of Artificial insemination has been seen mainly in dairy cattle which affects its genetic improvement and control of venereal diseases.
Semen Freezing Technology:
The most common cryoprotectant used for semen is glycerol (10% in culture medium). Often sucrose or other di-, trisaccharides are added to glycerol solution. Cryoprotectant media may be supplemented with either egg yolk or soy lecithin, with the two having no statistically significant differences compared to each other regarding motility, morphology, ability to bind to hyaluronate in vitro, or DNA integrity after thawing.
Semen is frozen using either a controlled-rate, slow-cooling method (slow programmable freezing or SPF) or a newer flash-freezing process known as vitrification. Vitrification gives superior post-thaw motility and cryosurvival than slow programmable freezing.