All I can say is ewwwwwwwww
I was running around last night trying to stop a dumped dog from being run over and no one would help me, while on the other side of town they're extracting dead dog's testicles to make even more dogs. Oh, the irony
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...616268956.html
Text: www.theage.com.au
Dead rottweiler sires healthy litter
By Stephen Cauchi
Science Reporter
April 23, 2004
We all know how there's life in the old dog. Now, thanks to science, there is even life in the dead dog.
For possibly the first time, sperm from a dead dog has been recovered, frozen, then used to successfully impregnate a bitch.
Donvale geneticist Desiree du Sart took the radical option after her beloved rottweiler, Dittmar, who had bone cancer, was put down in 2000.
Distraught with the sudden realisation that Dittmar had no offspring to survive him, she sought the help of the Monash Veterinary Clinic. The clinic extracted Dittmar's testes, recovered some live sperm, and froze it.
That was four years ago. In January the sperm was inserted into Dr du Sart's bitch, Lucky - who lived up to her name when, on March 25, she gave birth to eight healthy pups.
"We were so lucky that it actually worked and we've got eight pups," Dr du Sart said. "Certainly it was a big shock when we put Dittmar down and we hadn't mated him at all. I had nothing to remind me of him."
Her job, as a geneticist at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, gave her insight into the latest fertilisation techniques. Frozen sperm from man's best friend is regularly traded across Australia and the globe for breeding purposes, albeit from live donor dogs. Why not a dead dog?
She contacted vet Ray Ferguson on the day Dittmar was put down. "The testes were removed, refrigerated and shipped over to me the next day and we extracted some semen that was still alive," Dr Ferguson said.
In 2002, Dr du Sart bought Lucky. In January, after Lucky reached breeding age, Dr Ferguson injected her with Dittmar's sperm, which had been frozen in liquid nitrogen.
"This is the first time we've done this. It's probably the first time it's ever been done in the world," said Dr Ferguson, who said it was not easy to get healthy sperm from live dogs to work.
"We didn't have much semen (and) I was concerned about the quality," he said. "It was awesome, just awesome . . . it's quite a little miracle. Everything had to go right to get her pregnant."
Dr du Sart said the entire procedure, including storage of the sperm, cost about $1500.
Dr Ferguson said the technique had been used recently on a dead lion, and frozen sperm from other dead dogs was in storage for future use.
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