
Preventing Thrush in Horses
Thrush is a bacterial infection, and one of the most common diseases, affecting horses’ hooves. You will likely know it when you see — and smell — it. The pungent, tar-like black discharge c ...
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Bovine Reproductive Services
In our continuous effort to provide the most up-to-date services to our clients, we have added embryo transfer and bull collection services. The use of these progressive tools allow the ranchers to extend the impact of their outstanding genetics, and is not as expensive as one might think.
Embryo transfer helps the breeder produce more offspring from cows that have proven themselves as good breeding animals and can also shorten the generation interval for faster genetic progress when flushing a heifer with great genetic potential.
Superovulation of the donor animal is done by specific hormone treatment to cause multiple follicles to ovulate. The manner in which the cow is treated during this time is a very important determining factor of success with the ET process and it is important to keep the animal in a comfortable, stress free environment to increase the chances of success with the ET process.
The donor animal is then inseminated with semen from the bull of your choice. One bull can be used or semen from multiple bulls can also be used to impregnate the cow. The ET process allows the breeder to have a greater impact not only from a specific cow but also from one bull by producing multiple pregnancies which is also an advantage when very expensive semen from top bulls are used.
The fertilized ova will develop into embryos which will be flushed from the donor animal 7 days after insemination. The flushing process is non-surgical after which the embryos are examined under a microscope and are then either transferred to recipient animals or frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen for later transfer into recipient animals. Recipient animals also form an integral part of the success of an ET program and have to managed carefully to ensure as many pregnancies as possible result from the ET process.