A PROCEDURE FOR SUCCESSFUL NONSURGICAL EMBRYO-TRANSFER IN SWINE

The current study was undertaken to develop a successful procedure for the nonsurgical transfer of pig embryos. A total of 663 embryos were surgically collected on Day 4 or 5 from 55 donors, of which 542 embryo s of acceptable quality were nonsurgically transferred to 46 recipient s. Nonsurgical recipient gilts were sedated 15 min prior to transfer w ith 20 mg im acepromazine maleate. A disposable insemination spirette with an attached 3-way stopcock was manipulated into the cervix of eac h gilt. Embryos were expelled from a tomcat catheter into the spirette , and 10 to 12 ml of Whitten's medium were used to flush embryos throu gh the spirette into the reproductive tract. Sixteen (34.8%) recipient gilts did not return to estrus before Day 36, and 10 (21.7%) gilts fa rrowed with an average litter size of 4.3 +/- 0.7. Embryos were collec ted from an additional 20 donors and were surgically transferred to an additional 19 recipients. Surgical transfers conducted at the same ti me as the nonsurgical transfers resulted in 12 (63.2%) gilts farrowing and 7.1 +/- 0.6 pigs were born per litter. In conclusion, a procedure has been developed for nonsurgical transfer of swine embryos which si mplifies the process of embryo transfer and which may increase the pot ential for utilization of embryo transfer technologies by swine produc ers.