• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.29-48
• /
• 2003

It is remarkable that nuclear transfer using differentiated donor cells can produce physiologically normal cloned animals, but the process is inefficient and highly prone to epigenetic errors. Aberrant patterns of gene expression in clones contribute to the cumulative losses and abnormal phenotypes observed throughout development. Any long lasting effects from cloning, as revealed in some mouse studies, need to be comprehensively evaluated in cloned livestock. These issues raise animal welfare concerns that currently limit the acceptability and applicability of the technology. It is expected that improved reprogramming of the donor genome will increase cloning efficiencies realising a wide range of new agricultural and medical opportunities. Efficient cloning potentially enables rapid dissemination of elite genotypes from nucleus herds to commercial producers. Initial commercialisation will, however, focus on producing small numbers of high value animals for natural breeding especially clones of progeny-tested sires. The continual advances in animal genomics towards the identification of genes that influence livestock production traits and human health increase the ability to genetically modify animals to enhance agricultural efficiency and produce superior quality food and biomedical products for niche markets. The potential opportunities inanimal agriculture are more challenging than those in biomedicine as they require greater biological efficiency at reduced cost to be economically viable and because of the more difficult consumer acceptance issues. Nevertheless, cloning and transgenesis are being used together to increase the genetic merit of livestock; however, the integration of this technology into farming systems remains some distance in the future.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.227-237
• /
• 2021

Artificial insemination of Korean native cattle (KNC) is the predominant method for breed improvement. However, industrialization of embryo production and transfer is necessary to utilize the genetic potential of KNC. The aim of this study was to examine associations between KNC donor cows and ovum pick-up (OPU) conditions, in-vivo oocyte recovery, and embryo development. Oocyte recovery and blastocyst development rates were higher at 50 and 60 mmHg OPU vacuum pressure than at 40 mmHg, which was, however, not significant. Regarding follicle growth, injection of 500 ㎍ GnRH 36 hours before OPU significantly increased the number of OPU oocytes from an average of 4.6 to 7.6 (P<0.05); no significant difference in embryo development rates was observed. Significant differences were observed in the numbers of OPU oocytes, embryo development rates, and transplantable blastocysts per individual among nine KNC donors (P<0.05). Furthermore, although there was no difference in OPU oocyte recovery intervals in approximately 2~8 weeks, the number of recovered oocytes significantly decreased at the 12-week interval (P<0.05); there was no difference in embryo development rates. The number of oocytes and embryonic development rates only tended to decrease until the seventh OPU session, but decreased significantly until the eighth session (P<0.05). The average pregnancy rate after transfer of OPU-derived in-vitro embryos into recipient cows was 41.8%. To improve the efficiency of OPU egg recovery and in-vitro embryo production, considering KNC donor characteristics, vacuum pressure of 60 mmHg, GnRH pretreatment to induce follicle growth, and effective OPU egg recovery up to seven times at intervals of 2~4 weeks appears to be most suitable. This study may facilitate the industrialization of KNC embryo production and transfer using high-quality cows.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.297-300
• /
• 2010

A female reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), 20-month-old, 342 kg, died at Seoul Zoo on January 2, 2009 after a stressful episode of chronic diarrhea. Given the appearances postmortem, it was strongly suspected that the giraffe suffered from malnutrition for a long time. Typical appearances of serous fat atrophy were shown on most fat tissues of body organs such as heart, bone, liver, mesentery and kidney. In this study, the sudden death that had been known as "peracute mortality syndrome" was clearly identified to have resulted from a lack of understanding the Browser's diet and general failure in giraffe husbandry. Individualized care and high quality hay must be provided to compensate higher consumption of metabolic energy and to prevent animal loss in winter season.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.439-445
• /
• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the optimum abrasive and friction milling ratio. This was accomplished by determining changes in the quality, such as whiteness, moisture content, broken kernel, unstripped embryo rate, and surface characteristics or milling difference, during an abrasive and friction based milling process. When only abrasive was milled, the increase of whiteness was fast in the first milling, whereas the increasing rate of whiteness was small in the latter milling. The decreasing rate of moisture content and broken kernel increased as the friction milling ratio was increased. Combining with the friction milling was considered a suitable method because the unstripped embryo rate was high only when abrasive milling was used. In the case of a high abrasive milling ratio, a significant milling difference was observed in the initial milling. This indicated that the milling difference was not completely eliminated despite using friction milling in the latter milling. Consequently, it was necessary to minimize the milling difference in the initial milling. When milling quality was synthetically considered, the abrasive milling ratio was varied from 20~50%. When the abrasive milling ratio was greater than 40%, the external quality of the rice milled deteriorated since holes and defects generated on the surface in the initial milling were not removed. Due to this deterioration in surface characteristics, an abrasive milling ratio of 30% was identified as a suitable level.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2013

The efficiency of artificial insemination (AI) for horses remains unsatisfactory. It is mainly because each process of AI causes a detrimental effect on semen quality. To sustain quality of semen properly, several factors including libido of stallions and sperm damage during sperm processing and preservation should be considered. Stallions with decent libido produce a high ratio of sperm to seminal plasma in their ejaculates, which is the ideal semen composition for maintaining sperm quality. Thus, to maximize the fertility rate upon AI, stallions should be appropriately managed to enhance their libido. Seminal plasma should have a positive effect on horse fertility in the case of natural breeding, whereas the effects of seminal plasma on both sperm viability and quality in the context of AI remain controversial. Centrifugation of semen is performed during semen processing to remove seminal plasma and to isolate fine quality sperm from semen. However, the centrifugation process can also result in sperm loss and damage. To solve this problem, several different centrifugation techniques such as Cushion Fluid along with dual and single Androcoll-E$^{TM}$ were developed to minimize loss of sperm and to damage at the bottom of the pellet. Most recently, a new technique without centrifugation was developed with the purpose of separating sperm from semen. AI techniques have been advanced to deliver sperm to optimal region of female reproductive tract at perfect timing. Recombinant equine luteinizing hormone (reLH) and low dose insemination techniques have been developed to maximize both fertility rate and the efficiency of AI. Horse breeders should consider that the entire AI procedure should be optimized for each stallion due to variation in individual horses for a uniformed AI protocol.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.79-84
• /
• 2017

Objective: Optimizing in vitro maturation (IVM) media to achieve better outcomes has been a matter of interest in recent years. The aim of this prospective clinical trial was to investigate the effects of different media on the IVM outcomes of immature oocytes at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage. Methods: A total of 400 immature oocytes at the GV stage with normal morphology were retrieved from 320 infertile women aged $31{\pm}4.63years$ during stimulated intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. They were divided into groups of homemade IVM medium (I, n = 100), cleavage medium (II, n = 100), blastocyst medium (III, n = 100), and Sage IVM medium (IV, n = 100) and cultured for 24 to 48 hours at $37^{\circ}C$. ICSI was performed, and the rates of fertilization and embryo formation were compared across the four groups. Results: In the 400 retrieved GV oocytes, the total maturation rates showed significant differences in groups I to IV (55%, 53%, 78%, and 68%, respectively, p<0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the fertilization, embryo formation, or arrest rates of metaphase II oocytes across these groups. In all groups, GV maturation was mostly completed after 24 hours, with fewer oocytes requiring 48 hours to mature (p<0.01). Moreover, the rate of high-quality embryos was higher in group IV than in the other groups (p=0.01). Conclusion: The quality of the IVM medium was found to affect clinical IVM outcomes. Additionally, blastocyst medium may be a good choice in IVM/ICSI cycles as an alternative IVM medium.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.107-115
• /
• 1998

The present study was carried out for the comparative study on the collection of bovine follicular oocytes by ultrasound-guided ovum pick-up(OPU) and slaughterhouse-derived (SHD) ovary aspiration and in vitro production of bovine embryos with the follicular oncytes in Korean native cows. Bovine follicular nocytes were observed with a 6.5 MHz convex-array ultrasound transducer designed for intravaginal use and the oocytes were collected with the aspiration equipment attached to the ultrasonograph. Bovine ovaries were collected and transported in phosphate buffered saline from the local slaughterhouse, the follicular oocytes were collected by the aspiration method. The collected follicular oocytes in good quality were matured, fertilized and cultured in the media. The total number of the visible follicles and the recovery rate of follicular oocytes were increased in ultrasonography following follicle stimulating hormone(FSH) treatment in Korean native cows. The mean recovery rate of oocytes was 66.2, 52.8 and 41.7% in the FSH-OPU, non-treatment-OPU and SHD ovaries, respectively. The mean number of recorved oocytes per cow were not significantly(P<0.05) different between the FSH-OPU(14.0$\pm$11.54) and SHD(17.1i6.21) groups, but the numbers in both groups were significantly(P<0.05) higher than the number in the non-treatment-OPU(3.7$\pm$1.57) group. The mean number of usable nocytes in Grade T /11 per ovary was 6.3, 4.8 and 1.3 in the cows of the SHD, FSH-OPU and non-treatment-OPU groups, respectively. The in vitro developmental rate to the blastocyst was not significantly different between the oocytes obtained via OPU(37.1%) and SHD(29.3%). Therefore, the ultrasound-guided OPU technique can be applied to the production of excellent embryos from the high-quality cows, and for the large scale production of in vitro bovine oocytes and embryos, the SHD ovary aspiration method is valuable.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.137-142
• /
• 2015

Cryopreservation of boar semen is continually researched in reproductive technologies and genetic resource banking in breed conservation. For evaluating the boar semen quality, sperm motility (MOT) is an important parameter because the movement of spermatozoa indicates active metabolism, membrane integrity and fertilizing capacity. Various researches have been trying to improve the quality of semen post-thawed in boar. Recently, polymorphism (g.158T>C) of phospholipase C zeta (PLCz) gene reported to be significant association with MOT. This study was conducted to evaluate the PLCz gene as a positional controlling for motility and kinematic characteristics of post-thawed boar semen. To results, The g.158 T>C SNP of PLCz was significantly associated with frozen semen motility and kinematic characteristics. g.158 T>C SNP was high significantly associated with MOT, VCL, VSL and VAP (p<0.0001, p=0.0002, p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively). Therefore, we suggest that the intron region of the porcine PLCz, may be used as a molecular marker for Duroc boar post-thawed semen quality, although its functional effect was not defined yet. Whether the association is due to the candidate gene or not require further verification. Thus, it will be of interest to continue association studies in the regions surrounding those genes.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.53-68
• /
• 2004

Eggshell quality is one of the most important factors that influence hatchability. The porosity and overall quality of eggshell have a very significant effect on exchange of vital gas (carbon dioxide and oxygen) between the developing embryo and the air during incubation. Thin-shelled eggs showed the greater weight loss than do thick-shelled eggs. causing the chick to have difficulty in hatching. Thin-shelled eggs also have a much greater chance of being cracked during handling. On the other hand. thick-shelled eggs showed the higher hatchability as a result of greater fertility and lower intermediate and late embryonic mortalities. Even a small percentage improvement in the eggshell quality could result in significant saving to the breeder industry in an increasingly competitive environment. Many factors including nutrition. management practices, environmental conditions and breeding are known to be related to eggshell quality. In this review brief accounts of each factor associated with eggshell quality and hatchability were provided. We conducted three experiments to investigate the effects of dietary Ca. vitamin D3 metabolite and some bioactive materials on eggshell quality and hatching egg production. The results of our studies showed that relatively high levels of dietary Ca in combination with 25-hydroxycholecalciferol had beneficial effects on improving eggshell quality and reproductive performances in aged egg-type breeder hens. It was also suggested that the proper use of some feed additives such as isoflavon and chitosan might provide means of improving eggshell quality and reproductive performances in aged egg-type breeder hens.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.64-69
• /
• 1998

This experiment was conducted to investigatd the variation of some apearance chemical components at National Honam Agricultural Experiment Station in Korea. the treatements consisted of five transplating times, form May 5 to July 5 at 15-day interval , and six cultivars ; two early-maturing, two mid-maturing and two latematuring cultivars. The results showed that the variatio of grain appearance such as length-wide ratio was not significantly different in early -maturing cultivars, but mid-and late-maturing cultivars made slightly a round shape of grain in case of early transplanting. Percentage of complete grain was found to be high at transplanting of MAy 20 inearly-maturing cultivars and on June 5 in mid-and late-maturing ones. PERcentage of existed embryo after milling showed high at early transplanting of May 5 for early -maturing cultivars, and at the late transplanting of June 5 in early and late maturing one. The chemical components of rice grain showed high in protein , lipid,ash and amylose content inthe earlier transplanting, and also revealed high in carbohydrates, magnesium and potassium in the later transplanting of all cultivars.