Embryo transfer in Korean Native Black Goat: Embryo recovery and transfer for the production of transgenic goat

한국재래흑염소 수정란의 이식: 형질전환 흑염소 생산을 위한 수정란의 채취와 이식

During the last three decades considerable advances has been made in goat embryo production and transfer technology. The Korean native black goat is the most useful domestic ruminant in this country for biological investigation and application because it has a lot of merits such as relatively short generation period(1 vs 2 year for a cow), easy of handling, well adaptation, high fertility, convenient and inexpensive. This article covers the methods of superovulation, estrus synchronization, embryo collection and transfer techniques, pregnancy diagnosis and subsequent pregnancy and kidding rates for the production of transgenic Korean native black goats. More than one hundred goat kids have been produced as a result of our transgenic goat project via microinjection of foreign gene into pronuclei, in vitro culture, transfer of various stages of fresh and frozen-thawed microinjected embryos into oviducts or uteri of recipient does. We have got two transgenic goats carrying a transgene targeting the expression of recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor(hG-CSF) to the mammary gland so far. Since collection and transfer of embryos in this species is usually accomplished by laparotomy, exteriorization of the reproductive tract for surgical embryo collection leads to the formation of post-operative adhesions. Nonsurgical or laparoscopic technique to reduce adhesions from repeated surgeries has great advantages in improving embryo production and transfer especially from valuable donors. We will discuss this later.