Practical aspects of IVM/IVF in cattle

Recent developments in the techniques of gamete manipulation and embryo production in vitro have already been applied to animal breeding. Embryos of commercial value or high genetic quality can be obtained in vitro from the oocytes of slaughtered donors or from donors of high genetic quality by ultrasound guided follicular aspiration. Large numbers of cheap embryos produced in vitro are also available for research. Many factors influence the efficiency of the in vitro technology such as the status of the donor and the technique used to culture the embryos from the zygote to blastocyst stage. The limits to the widespread use of in vitro technology are the low freezability of the embryos completely cultured in vitro and some abnormalities reported in the offspring.