IMPROVED HATCHING FOR IN-VITRO QUAIL EMBRYO CULTURE USING SURROGATE EGGSHELL AND ARTIFICIAL VESSEL

The establishment oi avian embryonic culture is important both for the analysis of the developmental process and the establishment of transg enic chickens that produce useful biological materials in eggs. Howeve r, the hatchability of cultured embryos has been similar to 50%. We id entified that the low rate of hatchability of cultured embryos was cau sed by limited oxygen and calcium availability. In quail embryo cultur e using chicken eggshell as a culture vessel, viability in the middle stage oi culture was improved and 30% of embryos were hatched by oxyge n enrichment. Furthermore, hatchability increased to 80% by supplement ation with calcium lactate in addition to oxygen aeration. In the pres ent study, a fully artificial vessel for quail embryo culture was desi gned using a gas-permeable Teflon membrane. By the addition of fine eg gshell powder and calcium lactate, quail embryos grew and developed no rmally, and 43% of embryos hatched. Although the hatchability was lowe r than that of cultures using a surrogate eggshell, we achieved in hat ching an avian embryo using a fully artificial vessel.