COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS OF IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION IN CATTLE

The historical development and commercial applications of in vitro tec hniques in cattle are reviewed in this article, and relevant data from the commercial in vitro program at a private company are presented. I n 1959, the rabbit was the first mammalian species in which live offsp ring were produced by in vitro fertilization. The next success was wit h laboratory mice in 1968, because mouse oocysts are inexpensive and c an be readily used in multifactorial experiments. The progress noted i n mice, however, did not prove to be a good model for developing in vi tro procedures in cattle. The efficiency of in vitro maturation, ferti lization, and culture procedures has improved, paving the way for exte nsive research using immature oocytes obtained from ovaries procured f rom slaughterhouses as starting material. Some of the future applicati ons of in vitro technology are fertilization with sex-selected sperm, in vitro fertilization of oocytes harvested from fetuses, and genetic analysis of embryos by polymerase chain reaction.