Dose size, volume comments by University of Vienna vet school director

I met with Dr. Christine Aurich of the U of Vienna veterinary school to discuss a variety of topics. When I lamented the fact that a couple of my suppliers had gone to two straw doses, she quickly corrected me and said, "No. When you are getting fewer straws, you are getting better semen with more viable sperm!" The important thing is to purchase semen from manufacturers who know how to make a good product and concentrate on providing the correct number of post thaw sperm.
Dr. Aurich then went on to say that the important thing with a two-straw dose, for example, was to get all of the semen into the mare. Unless the veterinarian or technician is using the minitube system, which gets every last bit of semen from the straw, this is nearly impossible to achieve. In fact, when thawed semen is deposited into a tube and then aspirated into a syringe, the most active and viable of the sperm are missed, because they are so lively they are already climbing up the sides of the tube! This has sold me completely on the minitube system.