Fertilization and Subsequent Development of Cattle Oocytes
after Reduced Incubation with Spermatozoa

A. S. Krivokharchenko, I. G. Smetanina, and L. V. Tatarinova

All-Russia Institute of Physiology, Biochemistry and Nutrition of Farm Animals,
Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Borovsk, Kaluga oblast, 249010 Russia

Received October 4, 1999; in final form, April 6, 2000

Abstract—We studied the influence of the duration of the joint incubation of cattle oocytes and spermatozoa
(18versus 1 h) on fertilization, cleavage, and embryonic development in vitro until the blastocyst stage. Sper-
matozoa of a bull of the Britanofrizskaya breed were used in the experiments. It was shown in the first experi-
mental series that after a long-term incubation with the spermatozoa, the percentage of penetrated eggs
increased 71.7 and 56.0% (p < 0.05) after 18-hour and 1-hour incubation, respectively. However, no differences
were found in the number of normally fertilized eggs: 46.5 and 39.0%, respectively. In the second experimental
series, no significant differences were found in either the number of cleaving embryos (41.2 and 32.2%, respec-
tively) or the capacity of cleaving embryos to develop in vitro until the blastocyst stage (21.7 and 15.8%, respec-
tively). Thus, reduction in the time of the joint incubation of cattle gametes upon in vitro fertilization to 1 h did
not reduce the number of normally fertilized eggs and did not affect their capacity for subsequent in vitro devel-
opment.

Key words: in vitro fertilization, oocytes, spermatozoa, preimplantation embryos, cattle

Pleiades Publishing home page | journal home page | top

If you have any problems with this server, contact webmaster.