Superovulation and embryo preservation in goats. Influence of different embryo collection techniques over the recovery rate and embryo quality in Majorera goats subjected to superovulation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of three different techniques, surgical and non-surgical, for obtaining embryos after superovulation treatment in goats. Fifteen Majorera goats were subjected to superovulatory treatment, including intravaginal progesterone devices (11 days), 8 decreasing doses of follicle-stimulating hormone (4 days) and a prostaglandin analogue to produce superovulation. Subsequently, the goats were covered and after 5-6 days after mating, embryo collection was performed using three different protocols: conventional surgery (CS), laparoscopically assisted surgery (LS) and a transcerivcal technique (TT), the last of which was a non-surgical type. The number of transferable embryos was 4.6 (28/30) in CS, 5.25 (21/23) in LS and 2.5 (10/16) in TT. The embryo recovery rate was 46.9% in CS, 81.6% in LS, while in TT it was not possible to determine it. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure, the surgical techniques (CS and LS) had limitations regarding the specific infrastructures and equipment needed, so the number of repetitions could not be high. However, the most promising results were achieved with LS.