A new computer-based program working off an electronic tablet (iPad) is bringing reliable information about concentration, motility, and other critical semen aspects right into the breeding barn. | Photo: iStock

Unless your farm is equipped with expensive, nonportable, high-tech equipment, qualifying semen for artificial insemination operations likely involves a lot of guesswork. A new computer-based program working off an electronic tablet (iPad), however, is bringing reliable information about concentration, motility, and other critical semen aspects right into the breeding barn, according to Belgian researchers. In fact, its results run close to those you’d get with the higher-priced gold standard equipment.

“It’s amazing how parallel the two systems are, meaning you can rely on the mobile system as much as the fixed laboratory system (for real-time results),” said Peter Daels, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECAR, ACT, of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Gent University in Merelbeke, Belgium.

A new study carried out by Gent University and the De Morette Equine Reproduction Center in Asse, Belgium, showed that the “iSperm” system provided stallion sperm analysis results in the field that were within 10% of the results obtained by AndroVision and NucleoCounter SP‐100 laboratory devices. These fixed devices aren’t portable and cost upward of 20,000 euros ($23,000)