Beyond Extender

Description

Currently, storage of chilled stallion semen is limited to only 3-4 days with the available extenders.  Therefore, timing is very important at every step of artificial insemination (AI) in horses. Semen must be processed and shipped quickly, and insemination has to be perfectly synchronized with the mare’s ovulation. Another problem are stallion ‘poor coolers’ or stallions who have a low initial semen quality, which shortens the time of storage or even makes it impossible.

World leaders Minitube have developed Beyond, a fully synthetic, ready to use extender that extends storage time significantly (see attached leaflet). It allows storage at +5°C and +17°C with motility being conserved at a high level for up to 14 and 7 days* respectively.

Beyond extends the boundaries of the horse breeding industry by not only allowing longer storage and shipping times but also reducing the amounts of weekly semen collections from high demand stallions. This increases the efficiency of stallion stud farms and improves animal welfare.

Please note the sample needs to be centrifuged before adding Beyond extender.

Benefits of Beyond at a glance

• Semen of so-called “poor coolers” and low initial semen quality can be stored for up to 7 days at +17°C
• Semen storage and transport at +5°C
• Less frequent collections of stallions, resulting in improved animal welfare, more efficiency, and a decrease of costs
• All components are purely synthetic, reducing the risk of uterine inflammation
• Ready to use in 100ml bottles
• More flexible logistics of AI
• Longer storage times decreases number of shipments of insemination doses

How to use Beyond® – extender for long-term storage of chilled stallion semen

Field study results of Beyond

Beyond was used to compare the storage of ejaculates of 25 different stallions from two stud farms in a split-sample study and found that motility is conserved at a high level for up to 14 or 7 days of storage at +5°C or +17°C, respectively.  Please click on below leaflet for more info.

Beyond Leaflet

Application

Beyond is a chemically defined, synthetic medium with pharmaceutical grade ingredients and contains antibiotics and a fungicide.

For optimum results your freshly collected semen sample is maintained at a temperature of +30°C to +33°C and analysed. Aforementioned results were obtained using Equiplus as the pre-extender however any milk based extender can be used.  Samples are centrifuged with or without cushion fluid then the supernatant (and cushion fluid if applicable) are removed and Beyond is then added.

Please note that chilled semen needs to be transported in centrifuge tubes due to potential damage of semen due to proteins within syringes.

Beyond Manual

* Please note both are maximum storage times and not absolutes.