**4. Conclusion**

Artificial insemination is a common practice in the poultry industry with the turkey industry in North America and Europe using it almost exclusively for the production of hatching eggs. The broiler industry has not adapted AI for several reasons: because of sheer numbers of broiler breeders that need to be inseminated weekly, the labor cost would be very significantly; the initial investment in special housing for the males; an efficient, cost effective means of actually performing the inseminations (housing and catching the hens) would need to be developed; and finally, the concern that after a few generations of breeding broilers by AI, the behaviors associated with natural mating may be less dominant. Notwithstanding these concerns, the benefits of AI for broilers would include the following: the male:female ratio would be increase from 1:10 for natural mating to 1:25 with AI; with fewer males needed, there would be greater selection pressure on the male traits of economic importance and subsequently greater genetic advancement per generation; biosecurity concerns associated with "spiking" aging hen flocks with new and/or younger males to augment mating frequency and fertility would be elimi‐ nated; and, differences in body conformation between males and females that impact semen transfer at mating would no longer be a consideration.

In 1995, Sir Peter Lake wrote an excellent review of the history of AI, its impact on the poultry industry, and what is needed to advance the practice of AI with poultry [93]. Unfortunately, AI technology has not advanced significant since this review article. More than 15 years later, the only significant advance is in the evaluation of sperm mobility and the impact that males producing highly mobile sperm have on paternity [9]. Notwithstanding, it is foreseeable that sometime in the future, research addressing poultry sperm biology and the cellular and molecular basis of oviductal sperm transport, selection, and storage will lead to the following innovations in AI technology: insemination intervals increased to 10-14 days (versus 7-day) with fewer sperm per insemination; *in vitro* sperm storage for 24-36 hr at ambient temperature with minimal loss of sperm viability; and, the possibility of transgenic progeny following the insemination of sperm carrying transgenes.
