Nonsurgical Embryo Transfer in a Private Practice (1998)

Embryo transfer has become an important reproductive tool in many equine breeding programs throughout the world today. It is commonly utilized to produce multiple foals in a season from a particular mare, to produce foals from mares involved in some other activity such as showing or racing, and to produce foals from mares otherwise unable to successfully carry a foal to term. Surgical embryo transfer via flank laparotomy has been accepted as providing higher pregnancy rates than other methods, with an anticipated 75–80% of transfers resulting in pregnancies.1 The time, expense, and personnel necessary for surgical transfer have led to increasing interest in nonsurgical transcervical embryo transfer inrecentyears. Improvements in technique combined with operator experience have yielded sometimes inconsistent results, with pregnancy rates of 50–75%, approaching those of surgical transfer.2 This paper will report the results of a nonsurgical technique used in a commercial embryotransfer program during the 1998 breeding season.