IVF with frozen sperm is a 'milestone' in equine breeding

The first successful use of frozen semen in the technique has been recorded in an American study

- LUCY ELDER

THE first successful use of frozen sperm to create IVF equine embryos has been recorded in the US, in a “milestone” for breeding.

Researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, California, hope their findings will be useful for clinical applications, and opportunities to study fertilisation and embryo development.

They used defrosted sperm to fertilise eggs and create embryos. They compared stages of embryo development to those achieved with ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection – injecting a single sperm into an equine egg).

IVF has historically had little success in horses. There have been recent advances, but only using high-quality fresh sperm, which limits its use.

Sperm from five stallions was used on 109 eggs, and scientists compared the early stages of development at several different points.