POSSIBILITIES OF OVUM PICK-UP IN CATTLE

Cattle breeding has a new reproduction technique in addition to artifi cial insemination and embryo transfer. It is the collection ova from l iving animal by means of ultrasound guided follicle aspiration (ovum p ick-up), followed by embryo-production in vitro. Follicles larger than 2 mm were punctured and the ova were collected twice weekly during 3 months. In total 1677 ova were collected from ten cows; 1342 (80%) wer e used for in vitro maturation, fertilization, and embryoculture. All ova were-fertilized with semen from one bull, and 218 transferable emb ryos were produced. Calculated on a year basis, this would amount to 8 7 embryos per animal, with an intra-animal variation between 28 and 13 2. This new techniqne may replace MOET (Multiple Ovulation and Embryo Transfer; yearly average of 25 transferable embryos per animal), if th e embryo-production via OPU can be performed with semen from any selec ted bull.