Thank you to Dr. Pat McCue from the Equine Reproduction Laboratory for last month’s article, Progesterone Therapy for Pregnant Mares – Part 1, in which he reviewed the formulations and use of progesterone therapy in mares. Dr. McCue did a yeoman’s task in outlining the formulations and principles of therapy available to veterinarians for the suppression of estrus, pregnancy support, and treating cases of suspected or diagnosed placentitis. However, the maintenance of pregnancy is by far the most common area in which we receive questions about supplementing mares with exogenous (therapeutic) forms of progesterone.

In preparation for our annual SBS Affiliate meeting, I was speaking to Dr. Patrick McCue (my friend and mentor and honored guest speaker this year’s meeting) about the commonality of questions I have from clients. By far, the most discussed topic is supplementation of progesterone to pregnant mares to help them maintain a pregnancy. Many times, the questions stem from the necessity of such therapy, duration, and efficacy of supplementation. Sometimes, even with the best therapy, we fail to reach a good outcome, but the following discussion about the forms of supplementing progesterone is well worth a quick read for any breeder.

Select Breeders Services (SBS) hosted its 18^th Annual Meeting of SBS Affiliated Laboratories in Chesapeake City, Maryland on December 10^th and 11^th, 2018. As the largest provider of frozen semen services in the world, SBS has been a leader in the frozen semen industry for more than 30 years. Currently, we have 26 affiliate laboratories throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Australia. We are pleased to announce our newest affiliate member, Dr. Claire Plante of Therion Science, Inc. in Ontario, Canada.

It is generally known that the quality of semen after freezing is dependent upon how good the semen is immediately after collection and prior to freezing. In some cases there is nothing one can do to improve the quality of the semen collected and one has to deal with the cards he has been given. However, there have been several management factors identified that adversely affect the quality of semen collected. The goal of every collector should be to carefully prepare the AV and collect the stallion on one mount. Each time a stallion mounts and enters the AV and does not ejaculate the pre-sperm is accumulated in the bottle. After each unsuccessful collection attempt the bottle should be replaced with a warm fresh bottle. If this does not occur we know that the quality of the semen will be decreased.