Abstract

Synchronised breeding systems involving 290 red deer hinds were investigated in 5 experiments with fixed-time laparoscopic artificial insemination (AI) following a synchronised oestrus and in 1 experiment with synchronised natural breeding. Experiment 1 involved an investigation of the potential for twinning; hinds were treated with PMSG and inseminated before (March 1) or during (April 12) the normal breeding season, with 29 and 40% respectively having multiple ovulations. There was no effect of AI date on pregnancy rate (0.80 and 0.71 respectively) but a greater proportion of hinds which had multiple ovulations. There was no effect of AI date on pregnancy rate (0.80 and 0.71 respectively) but a greater proportion of hinds which had multiple ovulations and had not been lactating in the previous season were twin- pregnant than hinds which had been lactating (0.19 and 0.62, P<0.05). In other experiments AI was performed using red (R; n=70), Canadian wapiti (CW; n=59) or CW x R hybrid (n=11) frozen-thawed semen with pregnancy rates of 0.67, 0.66 and 0.82 respectively. Fresh Pere David's deer x R hybrid semen gave a pregnancy rate of 0.61 (n=31). A pregnancy rate of 0.84 was recorded for the synchronised natural mating of (CW x R) males with red females (n=49). Overall 3% of the R pregnancies and 9% of the hybrid pregnancies failed to reach terms.

AM, McDonnell

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 51, , 295-296, 1991