EMBRYO AND OOCYTE COLLECTION IN THAI SWAMP BUFFALO (Bubalus bubalis) AFTER SUPEROVULATION

Abstract

Six-day embryos were recovered from 25 swamp buffalo cows treated with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (2,500 iu PMSG, n=9) and follicle stimulating hormone (280 mg, n=12 and 400 mg FSH, n=4). Two techniques, non surgical collection from live animals and direct flushing after slaughter were compared. The oocytes were collected from ovaries immediately after slaughter by aspiration with or without ovarian chopping. The studies showed that 0.44+0.59 embryos were collected from PMSG group, while 1.38+1.31 embryos were collected in FSH group. Fifty percent to 60% of recovered embryos were transferable. The non surgical technique gave a low recovery rate (14.40%) and a low number of recovered embryos (0.38+0.56) and of transferable embryos (0.13+0.22) per donor. The average number of oocytes collected were 14.78+13.7 per ovary after aspiration and 34.33+13.7 per ovary after aspiration and chopping which
presented the average of 18.23+15.45 per ovary. About 48% of recovered oocytes were surrounded by cumulus mass with one or more layers and they can be matured in vitro after 12 hr of preservation and transportation at room temperature (25oC) at the rate of 5.8%. From this experiment, we showed that the embryos can be recovered from superstimulated buffalo cows treated with PMSG or FSH and the oocytes can be collected, preserved and matured in vitro .