Semen storage

Once the semen is collected it is evaluated thoroughly and processed by centrifuging to separate the sperm cells from the other fluids that were collected. These fluids are then drawn off, leaving only the sperm cells and a small amount of seminal fluid behind. This is done to avoid the problems with some studs that have blood, contaminates or prostate fluid that may have toxic effects on the semen. If we assume that all dogs could have problems associated with their semen, by removing all the prostate and/or supportive fluids from the semen collection we can control and ensure that all semen processed will be as uniform as possible. The semen is then prepared with the different solutions that Clone developed specially  for this, to preserve the semen and to eliminate the eventual damage the freezing might do to the sperm cells. The prepared semen is then evaluated once again to see how well it responded to the preparation. The semen often shows a great improvement and is thus a better semen for freezing and will therefore give a better post  freezing quality. The straws are marked with the number of the dog, an identification letter of the straw, the date of freezing, the breed of the dog and the registration number of the dog. All this has been found to be very important for the identification of the semen and no mix ups are possible as the ID is checked on the straw before the thawing.

The prepared semen is drawn in .5 ml. straws with approx. 75-100 milj. sperm cells per straw and then frozen in liquid nitrogen at -196 C. The usual breeding unit in this way is normally only 2 straws per breeding. Inseminating larger quantities would be a waste of semen in the vaginal tract. As the most fertile time of the bitch is pinpointed by an accurate progesterone test, only one breeding is usually necessary. How many straws you get from one collection depends on the stud dog and the breed and can vary as bigger dogs usually give much more sperm than smaller breeds
The frozen semen straws are then stored according to the CLONE storage system which is ingenious and permits to find and identify a particular dogs frozen semen in a very simple way without any possible mix ups.

! IMPORTANT !

CLONE sees to that the semen stored is and stays your property legally, until you agree and sign for any use of it. This means that, every time any transaction is done with the semen, for any inseminations done, for any shipments, or for any transfer of ownerships of any amount of breeding units, the initiative should come from you and CLONE will have you sign a special form for this and therewith agree to the transaction in question. You will always - and should always - have the total control of your semen.