Advances in complementary livestock artificial reproductive techniques

Assisted reproductive techniques are beneficial to increasing animal agricultural production and improving veterinary medicine. Foundational techniques (e.g. artificial insemination and in vitro embryo production) have paved the way for both complementary and adjunct techniques to arise as technologies and research advance. Female/offspring focused technologies include those to increase precision of estrus detection, genomic selection through embryo biopsy, and gene editing via ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’ (CRISPR) and CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9), whereas male focused technologies include sex sorting after freezing and thawing (‘reverse sex sorted semen’), multisire straws for artificial insemination, and spermatogonial stem cell transplantation. Although improvement in efficiency and feasibility is paramount, these recently developed and emerging techniques will likely become important to ensuring that animal products are produced efficiently and humanely. This review highlights these newer advances, with a particular focus on how they may impact mammalian agriculture and veterinary medicine.