Alexandra Boleman

Possibilities to Improve the Quality of the Embryos Obtained from Donor Cows

The aim of this paper was to add gestagene hormones in superovulatory treatments of the embryo donor cows, in order to obtain a higher number of viable embryos. Experiments were performed on 5 Friesian breed cows. As gestagene hormones, were used Synchro MateB (SMB) implants, containing 3 mg Norgestomet. The implants were inserted subcutaneously, on the external part of the ear, additionally 2 ml injection solution of SMB containing 3 mg Norgestomet and 5 mg Estradiol valeriate, were administrated (0 day). The superovulation inducing treatments, started in the 5 day, by administrating 400 mg Folltropin –V (FSH), divided in 8 doses of 50 mg each, administrated of 12 hours intervals. Together with the last dose of FSH, 25 mg Lutalyse (PgF2α) were administrated. The SMB implant was removed in the 9 day, on the same time with the last FSH dose administration. The embryos were non-surgical recovered in the 7 day from the estrus. Embryo quality was evaluated after morphological criteria described by IETS manual (1998). Embryos were classified in the fallowing quality codes: code 1 (very good quality), code 2 (good quality), code 3 (satisfying quality), code 4 (nonviable embryos). From 5 cows that reacted well to the superovulation treatment 38 embryos ( x =9.5 embryos/donor female) were obtained. The majority of the embryos (60.5%) were in blastocyst stage, and 13.2% were in morula stage. The results obtained at embryo classification into quality codes are listed in table 1. Tab. 1 Quality of the recovered embryos Quality codes Very good (code 1) Good (code 2) Satisfying (code 3) Nonviable (code 4) Recovered embryos (n) n % n % n % n % 38 15 39.5 6 15.8 7 18.4 10 26.3