title: Breakthroughs in Equine Embryo Cryopreservation.
abstract: Most equine embryos are collected from the donor mare and transferred immediately as fresh embryos or shipped cooled to a recipient station for transfer within 24 hours. Very few equine embryos are frozen despite the numerous advantages of embryo cryopreservation. There are 2 major hurdles: Only the small embryos (<300 μm) provide good pregnancy rates after freezing/thawing and transfer. Also there is no good procedure for superovulating mares; thus, extra embryos for freezing are not readily available. Using either a slow cool or a vitrification method, pregnancy rates of small equine embryos after freezing/thawing are 50% to 70%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky, 1500 South limestone Ave, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. Electronic address: edward.squires@uky.edu.
authors.forename: Edward L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Squires
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000662:veterinary; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D006736:Horses / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate
keywords: Embryo; Equine; Slow cool; Vitrification