in vitro maturation and fertilization of buffalo oocytes cultured in media supplemented with bovine serum albumin

the aim of this study was to determine the quality of cumulus-oocyte-complexes (cocs) and the effects of bovine serum albumin (bsa) supplementation on in vitro maturation and fertilization rate of buffalo oocytes. cocs were collected from slaughterhouse buffalo ovaries by aspiration method. only normal grades cocs were matured for 48 hours in tcm-199 media. two groups were created: one for the maturation medium supplemented with 5% of bsa, the other without supplementation (control). matured oocyte fertilized with capacitated frozen-thawed semen in brackett and oliphant (bo) medium for 5 hours, in an incubator at 38.5 °c with 5% co2 underhumidified air. a significantly higher number of normal quality cocs per ovary (p