Novel Synthetic oviductal fluid for Conventional Freezing 1 (SCF1) culture medium improves development and cryotolerance of in vitro produced Holstein embryos.

In vitro produced (IVP) embryos hold great promise in the cattle industry; however, suboptimal in vitro culture conditions induce metabolic dysfunction, resulting in poor development and low cryotolerance of IVP embryos. This limits the use of IVP embryos in the cattle industry for embryo transfer and commercial scale-up. Previous studies have reported the use of individual metabolic regulators in culture media to improve blastocyst development rates and cryopreservation.

Improving in vitro maturation and pregnancy outcome in cattle using a novel oocyte shipping and maturation system not requiring a CO₂ gas phase.

The present work evaluated the benefit of a novel shipping and maturation medium (SMM) not requiring a CO2 gas for maturation and subsequent embryonic development of slaughterhouse and ovum pickup (OPU) bovine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). Four experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, COCs were maturated for 18 hours in SMM and then incubated for 6 hours in, or 24 hours in a conventional system (control).

Cross-validation of techniques for measuring lipid content of bovine oocytes and blastocysts.

The main objective was to test and validate a fluorescence approach to quantify lipid content of individual bovine oocytes and blastocysts. For Experiment 1, denuded oocytes were evaluated, as well as in vitro-produced blastocysts in a factorial design: cows versus feedlot heifers; three additives during Days 2.5-7.

In vitro fertilization using non-sexed and sexed bovine sperm: sperm concentration, sorter pressure, and bull effects.

The objective of these experiments was to study bovine in vitro fertilization (IVF) conditions for blastocyst production using non-sexed sperm (Experiment 1) and sexed sperm (Experiment 2). For Experiment 1, in vitro-matured oocytes (N=707) were allocated to a 2 × 3 × 4 factorial design: time of co-incubation of gametes for fertilization (4 and 18 h), sperm dose (1, 0.33, and 0.