Effect of number of oocytes and embryos on in vitro oocyte maturation, fertilization and embryo development in bovine

The aim of this study was to identify the in vitro development stage at which the culture of a single or low number (n = 5 or 10) of oocytes/embryos could impair development in comparison with culture in group (n = 50). In the Experiment 1, it was confirmed that single in vitro embryo production yielded lower cleavage and blastocyst rates than in group (49.4 vs. 83.0%; 0% vs. 37.8%, respectively; p < 0.05). In Experiment 2 and 3, it was observed no effect on embryo development of culturing single or low number of oocytes during maturation and fertilization, respectively. In Experiment 4, it was observed a detrimental effect on blastocyst rate when cultured single or low number of embryos during post-fertilization in vitro culture (2.9; 10.2-10.8; 33.2% in single, low number of embryos (5-10), and controlgrouped, respectively; p < 0.05). In Experiment 5, it was observed that the last part of the culture period (day 3 onwards) seemed to be more affected by the low number of embryos placed in culture. In conclusion, post-fertilization culture, especially on days 3 to 7 after fertilization, seems to be the most important stage for embryo development on single and/or low number (5-10) of embryos culture. Additional key words: single/low embryo culture.