102 Prealpes du Sud donor ewes were superovulated by a treatment with vaginal sponges impregnated with 40 mg of FGA. When the sponges were withdrawn at 14 days, follicular maturation was stimulated in these ewes with 12 mg of porcine pituitary extract (pFSH). The recipient ewes were treated i.m. with 500 IU of PMSG. Different batches of pFSH (batch pFSH1/Group A; batch pFSH2: groups B and C) we...

The present study was performed to optimize a superovulation protocol in rats in order to produce a large number of good-quality embryos suitable to develop rat embryonic stem (rES) cells. We first evaluated the ovulation kinetics of three rat strains: Wistar, Fisher and ACI/N. Animals (n=30 per strain) were treated with 50 IU of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG), and ovulation was induc...

Routine access to the bovine oviduct for in vivo culture accomplishes various demands on embryo production for scientific as well as commercial purposes. The experiments conducted in the present study focused on the efficiency of recovery methods after temporary in vivo culture of bovine embryos in oviducts of the homologous species using transvaginal endoscopy (Experiment I) and on the quality...