title: Ovulation and embryo recovery rates following immunization of mares against an inhibin alpha-subunit fragment.
abstract: Six normally cycling mares were immunized 5 times at 3-week intervals with a synthetic porcine inhibin alpha-subunit fragment which had been conjugated to bovine serum albumin and emulsified in Freund's incomplete adjuvant. Immunized mares ovulated a significantly larger (P < 0.01) number of follicles per estrous cycle (2.8 +/- 1.1; range 1 to 8 ovulations) than 14 nonimmunized control mares (1.1 +/- 0.1; range 1 to 2 ovulations). Day-7 embryo recovery rates tended to be higher (P < 0.1) in immunized mares (1.6 +/- 0.5 embryos per flush) than in control mares (0.7 +/- 0.2 embryos per flush). No differences in interovulatory intervals were found between the 2 groups. These results indicate that immunization against inhibin may be useful in inducing development and ovulation of multiple follicles for embryo transfer in the mare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: McCue
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Carney
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rivier
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vale
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Lasley