Induction of lamb follicular development and embryo production in vitro

Abstract

Effect of lamb age, transport stimulation and repeated hormone superovulation on the number of collected oocytes were determined, and effect of the culture medium containing ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) on the development of produced embryos from lamb oocytes in vitro were studied. Results indicated that the mean number of collected and available oocytes from per 6- to 8- week lamb were 60.8±13.9 and 58.2±12.3 respectively, which were more than that those (27.3±5.1 and 26.0±4.9 ) from per 12- to 14- week lamb(P 0.05), respectively; The transport stimulation didn't decreased the number of collected oocytes from the superovulation lambs(P 0.05), however, the number of collected oocytes in the repeated superovulation group was reduced significantly compared with the control group(P 0.05); The embryonic culture medium containing 10 μmol/L EDTA could improve significantly the development capability of in vitro produced embryo from lamb oocytes (P 0.05), and the healthy lambs were born by the embryo transfer.