Embryo transplantation is a reproductive technique in which an embryo of valuable donor mare is flushed out and transplanted into a surrogate mother. The embryo is collected about 7 or 8 days after ovulation from the uterus of the pregnant donor mare. After searching and washing the embryo, it is transplanted transcervically within 4 hours at a surrogate mother. After birth, the foal is still some time nursed by this recipient mare, until the time of weaning.
When flushing the donor mare, we have in 50 to 55% of the cases an embryo, and after the transplantation of an embryo eventually 85 to 92% of the recipient mares will become pregnant. These percentages are affected by various factors that relate both to the donor and the receptor mare. However, there is still a loss of 10% of all the embryos between 14 and 45 days of gestation. This phenomenon can also be observed in a normal pregnancy. This means that the probability of a pregnant receptor mare per cycle or embryo flush is situated between 33 and 45%. One can therefore say that there are needed on average three embryos flushes to produce one foal.
| Embryotransfer | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artificial insemination of the donor mare | |
| 2. | Embryo Flush of the donor mare on D7 – D8 | |
| 3. | Transfer from te embryo’s to a recipient mare | |
| 4. | Pregnant recipient mare at 45 days of pregnancy. | Watch pricelist |
The recipient mare needs to be picked up at 45 days of pregnancy. After this point all the costs ( pension, drugs…) will be charged to the client.
