In Italy, there is an urgent need of conservation and safeguard programmes for Italian rabbit breeds in order to counteract biodiversity losses. Sperm cryopreservation is considered a secure method for the ex situ preservation of biodiversity facilitating the storage of their gametes in a gene bank. In this regard, thanks to the financed project Cun-Fu (MiPAAF 2016-2019) that aimed the safeguard and valorisation of Italian rabbit breeds, the first Italian semen cryobank has been created. Semen cryopreservation activities within project have been facilitated thanks to the collaboration over the past several years between the University of Molise (Zoocolture laboratory) and Associazione Nazionale Coniglicoltori Italiani (ANCI-AIA). The University staff with the use of a mobile laboratory, were in charge for the semen cryopreservation. They moved in some Italian regions where events organised by ANCI i.e. local fairs and exhibitions of autochthonous rabbit occurred thanks to the participation of ‘keeper’s breeders’. Males employed for the semen collection have been selected on sanitary status and specific morphological features. Semen samples were collected by an artificial vagina, the samples were then cooled at 5 °C for 90 min, then diluted to a ratio 1:1 (v:v) with an extender composed of Tris-citric acid-glucose (TCG) containing 16% DMSO and 0.1 M sucrose. The diluted semen was packaged into 0.25 mL plastic straws, equilibrated at 5 °C for 45 min. Lastly, semen was frozen by exposure at 5 cm above liquid nitrogen for 10 min, then was transferred into liquid nitrogen for storage at −196 °C. During the first year of the project, the semen from 114 rabbits of 26 breeds were collected and frozen, for a total of 431 doses. According to the Cun-Fu project goals, the number of doses for the Italian semen cryobank will be increased to preserve the autochthonous rabbit breeds. In fact, this cryobank will play an important role i.e. to preserve resources with high genetic value to use in the medium or long term. In particular, these resources will be used: (1) to allow the backup of populations preserved in vivo in the event of genetic problems (inbreeding and genetic drift), to increase the effective population size; (2) to provide the possibility to reconstruct breeds in the event of extinction or drastic reduction of the population.
First semen cryobank of Italian rabbit breeds
DI IORIO M.;RUSCO G.;MANCHISI A.;IAFFALDANO N.
2019-01-01
Abstract
In Italy, there is an urgent need of conservation and safeguard programmes for Italian rabbit breeds in order to counteract biodiversity losses. Sperm cryopreservation is considered a secure method for the ex situ preservation of biodiversity facilitating the storage of their gametes in a gene bank. In this regard, thanks to the financed project Cun-Fu (MiPAAF 2016-2019) that aimed the safeguard and valorisation of Italian rabbit breeds, the first Italian semen cryobank has been created. Semen cryopreservation activities within project have been facilitated thanks to the collaboration over the past several years between the University of Molise (Zoocolture laboratory) and Associazione Nazionale Coniglicoltori Italiani (ANCI-AIA). The University staff with the use of a mobile laboratory, were in charge for the semen cryopreservation. They moved in some Italian regions where events organised by ANCI i.e. local fairs and exhibitions of autochthonous rabbit occurred thanks to the participation of ‘keeper’s breeders’. Males employed for the semen collection have been selected on sanitary status and specific morphological features. Semen samples were collected by an artificial vagina, the samples were then cooled at 5 °C for 90 min, then diluted to a ratio 1:1 (v:v) with an extender composed of Tris-citric acid-glucose (TCG) containing 16% DMSO and 0.1 M sucrose. The diluted semen was packaged into 0.25 mL plastic straws, equilibrated at 5 °C for 45 min. Lastly, semen was frozen by exposure at 5 cm above liquid nitrogen for 10 min, then was transferred into liquid nitrogen for storage at −196 °C. During the first year of the project, the semen from 114 rabbits of 26 breeds were collected and frozen, for a total of 431 doses. According to the Cun-Fu project goals, the number of doses for the Italian semen cryobank will be increased to preserve the autochthonous rabbit breeds. In fact, this cryobank will play an important role i.e. to preserve resources with high genetic value to use in the medium or long term. In particular, these resources will be used: (1) to allow the backup of populations preserved in vivo in the event of genetic problems (inbreeding and genetic drift), to increase the effective population size; (2) to provide the possibility to reconstruct breeds in the event of extinction or drastic reduction of the population.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
