In the early days of embryo transfer, all collections and transfers were performed surgically. The cost, risk to donor animals, and aftercare have been greatly reduced through the current techniques of non-surgical embryo collection and transfer. The mare is restrained for non-surgical embryo transfer. Her tail is wrapped and held out of the way, while […]

The mare’s reproductive or estrous cycle has a conventional length of approximately 21 days through the breeding season. Throughout her cyclic activity, fluid-filled follicles develop on the mare’s ovaries. Towards the end of the ‘heat’ period or estrus during which time the mare is receptive to a stallion, a follicle or occasionally two follicles, grow, […]

Temporary storage of equine embryos necessitates cautious regulation of temperatures and holding in a special solution. Continuing storage, commonly anything in excess of a day requires that embryos be frozen or cryo-preserved under proscribed programs and stored in liquid nitrogen. When frozen, embryos remain stable for many years. This implies that embryos may be collected […]

An extremely fascinating aspect to equine embryo transfer is that donor mares may continue in competition or training and still produce a foal without becoming pregnant themselves. Embryo collections intended for mares that foal late in a year are being performed by transferring the embryo to a recipient or it is being frozen. The donor […]

The utilization of embryo transfer in the horse has progressed steadily over the past couple of decades. Nevertheless, numerous unique biological features as well as technical problems have restricted its prevalent use in the horse as compared with the other industry. Reasons that affect embryo recovery include the quality of sire’s semen, age of the […]

Equine Embryo Transfer (EET) is a recognized reproductive technology that relates to the collection of an embryo (or embryos) from a donor female. It is a process that is becoming more and more popular in the equine world for obtaining foals. This technique involves recovering embryos from bred (donor) mares and placing them in a […]