THE livestock sector has long embraced AI even before the inception of ChatGPT and the Yearbook Trend. But this AI is not fueled by machine learning. It is driven by heat. It is not artificial intelligence, but artificial insemination (AI).
For more than a decade now, the Department of Agriculture (DA)—through its attached agencies—has been using AI to boost local meat production.
Dubbed the Unified National Artificial Insemination Program or UNAIP, the DA sees AI technology as one of the means to improve raisers’ profit.
“The UNAIP aims to provide better opportunities for livestock farming communities by enhancing productivity and competitiveness through institutionalized AI delivery systems at the village level,” the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), which spearheads the UNAIP, told the BusinessMirror.
The UNAIP is a collaboration of multiple attached agencies of the agriculture department that are involved in livestock and dairy production.
These agencies include the BAI, Philippine Carabao Center, National Dairy Authority, and all DA regional field offices.
“Artificial insemination is one of the most efficient tools in effecting animal genetic improvement in contribution to farmer raiser productivity,” the BAI explained.
Targets for AI
UNDER the UNAIP, the bull frozen semen are produced by the BAI and PCC, and are then distributed through the DA’s regional field offices (RFOs).
The RFOs would be the ones responsible for the distribution of the semen straws to their respective provincial veterinary and agriculture offices down even to the municipal agriculture offices.
“The LGU AI technicians and village-based AI technicians will serve the frontline services to farmer clients. The same network for the reporting and monitoring system,” the BAI explained.
The UNAIP program plans to accelerate AI diffusion to 30 percent of the breedable population of cattle and carabaos nationwide.
It also aims to increase the conception rate of cattle and carabaos at the field level to 65 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
The PCC provides AI services to interested raisers through its village-based AI technicians or VBAITs. The going rates for AI services range between P300 and P1,000, whichever is the “existing acceptable price” in the concerned locality, according to the PCC.
For areas that do not have VBAITs, the conduct of AI service will be on a per schedule basis agreed upon between the PCC and the LGUs.
“The strategy is to cross the native swamp buffaloes with the dairy breed following a sustained backcrossing to at least four generations to produce animals with milk- and meat-producing potentials equivalent to the purebred dairy parents,” the PCC said.
The need for registry
Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Deogracias Victor Savellano took cognizance of the potential and opportunities that AI as a breeding technology can provide to the livestock sector.
However, Savellano emphasized that part of the success of such a program would depend on the state having an established livestock animal registry.
The registry, which would be a database about the country’s livestock population, would be helpful in delivering the government’s programs including AI, Savellano noted.
“That program is good. But we need the registry so we will have a basis for our service,” Savellano, a former governor and congressman, told the BusinessMirror.
“We need all the options [to boost livestock]. If it is effective, then we use it,” he added.
Challenges and incentives
ONE of the primary challenges being faced by the UNAIP is the lack of AI technicians nationwide, particularly at the LGU and village levels.
“To address the said challenge, the program continues to link and coordinate different NLAs with local units to provide AI training for frontline AI service providers,” the BAI said.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is also providing cash incentives to AI technicians through every calf born using the technology. From P100, the DA is now giving AI technicians a P500 incentive for every calf born.
“With the aim to [help them cope] with the changing times, the 400-percent incentive increase hopes to beef up financial support and further motivate AI technicians to deliver and render more AI services at the local and village levels, increase the program’s AI diffusion rate in target breedable cattle and carabao populations, and further improve on AI efficiency,” the DA said.
The DA is also set to provide awards and recognition to top-performing technicians who will be nominated and selected by the UNAIP management group. The winning outstanding AI technician will receive P20,000 while the winning Provincial AI Coordinator and Regional AI Coordinator will each get P10,000, according to the DA.
Repopulation after ASF
FOLLOWING the aftermath of African swine fever in the country’s hog sector, the DA has also turned to AI to boost its repopulation efforts nationwide.
The DA has been implementing its Upgraded Swine Artificial Insemination sa Barangay (SWAIB) project that seeks to “produce good quality genetically superior processed semen.”
Aside from providing the chance to produce more pigs, the use of AI also minimizes the transmission of diseases since boars will no longer be transported to service gilts and sows.
“This would eliminate the traditional boar for hire in the barangays wherein boars are transported to service gilts and sows, a practice that is prone to disease transmission, lower fertility and poor quality genetics,” the DA said.
“With this project, disease transmission is prevented, one boar can service many gilts and sows through collected, processed and stored semen, and can provide improved quality genetics,” the DA added.
The DA allotted P3.95 million for the establishment of bio-secure AI centers including the laboratory equipment and animals. Last year, the DA allocated P62.5 million for the creation of 19 Upgraded Swine AI centers in key LGUs nationwide.
Each SWAIB package is worth P4.75 million, which is broken down as follows: brio-secured housing and facilities (P3.35 million), 10 breeder boars (P1 million) and AI laboratory equipment (P400,000), according to the DA.
With the existing concerns of the livestock industry related to emerging diseases that compromise the supply, demand and income of the poultry and swine industries, artificial insemination in large ruminants can provide a venue to develop the cattle industry’s population and income generation.”
Technological advancements
JUST like AI, the artificial intelligence one, the technology behind artificial insemination has also been advancing.
The new reproductive techniques are deemed to be more cost-efficient as they promise higher pregnancy rate at lesser time and effort needed.
One of which is the fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI), which, according to literature, is a form of precision agriculture wherein the performance of AI—a single dose—is done at the most appropriate time.
“It provides greater chance for cows to be pregnant in a short period of time,” according to Bionova Livestock Group, one of the local companies providing FTAI to farms. “It generates long-term impacts as it improves the genetics of the succeeding herd production,” it added.
A study by Canada’s Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) showed that the use of FTAI could be more expensive than natural breeding services on a per cow basis.
But FTAI would bring more profit to cattle raisers due to “improvements in calving span, calving rate, and calf weaning rate,” according to BCRC.
The other advancements in reproductive biotechnology are multiple ovulation and embryo transfer technology (MOET) and in-vitro fertilization, according to the BAI. The MOET involves the fertilization of multiple eggs from a donor, with the embryos being removed to be put in various surrogate recipients.
Meanwhile, in in-vitro fertilization eggs are removed from a cow and are externally fertilized and once they become embryos they are implanted to recipient cows.
The BAI foresees a bright future for AI technology in the country’s livestock sector, noting its importance in meeting the country’s growing meat and dairy demand.
“[There will be] increasing demand for AI activities in the country and to achieve full-scale adoption of the AI technology and other advances in reproductive biotechnology in the country,” it said.
Image credits: Generative Art by Yodke67 | Dreamstime.com, Nonie Reyes