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Use of two‐year‐old mares as embryo donors in a commercial embryo transfer programme
Author(s) -
SAVAGE N. C.,
WOODCOCK L. A.,
GANNES G.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.1111/j.2042-3306.1989.tb04678.x
Subject(s) - embryo transfer , pregnancy , embryo , pregnancy rate , medicine , ovulation , embryo cryopreservation , obstetrics , gynecology , biology , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology
Summary In a commercial embryo transfer programme between 1985 and 1988, using two‐year‐old donor mares to achieve greater productivity and economic return, embryos were collected non‐surgically and transferred by transcervical technique. Embryo collection was performed on 19 mares on 31 occasions between 6.5 and 7.5 days post‐ovulation. Over the four years, 77.4 per cent (24 of 31) of the collections resulted in embryo recovery and there was no significant effect of year on recovery rate. Repeated recovery attempts in successive cycles showed no adverse effects on recovery rates. Using transcervical transfer, the pregnancy rate per recovery attempt was 12.9 per cent (range 10 to 57 per cent) and the pregnancy rate per transferred embryo was 30.4 per cent (range 14 to 80 per cent). Pregnancy data were calculated from ultrasound evaluations at 12 to 15, 20, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days. No pregnancy loss from recipient mares was recorded throughout the study. Non‐surgical embryo collection and transcervical transfer techniques can be considered useful management strategies to improve productivity from two‐year‐old donor mares.