Towards an embryocentric world: the current and potential uses of embryo technologies in dairy production
Peter J. Hansen A B and Jeremy Block AA Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0910, USA.
B To whom correspondence should be addressed. email: hansen@animal.ufl.edu
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 16(2) 1-14 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD03073
Submitted: 1 August 2003 Accepted: 1 October 2003 Published: 2 January 2004
Abstract
Structural features of the dairy industry make it well situated to use embryo technologies as tools for enhancing the genetic merit of dairy cattle and improving fertility. Technologies dependent upon embryo transfer have the potential to increase the efficiency of quantitative genetic selection as well as marker-assisted selection, simplify cross-breeding and germplasm conservation procedures and allow incorporation of transgenes into dairy cattle. In addition, embryo technologies may prove useful in improving fertility in infertile populations of lactating cows. The realisation of the promise of embryo technologies has been constrained by suboptimal efficiency in the production of embryos, alterations in embryonic and fetal survival and development associated with in vitro embryo production and cloning, as well as other technical and societal concerns. Solutions to many of these constraints are possible and the use of embryo technologies in both nucleus and commercial herds is likely to increase. Eventually, embryo transfer may compete with artificial insemination as a dominant method for establishing pregnancies in dairy cattle.
Acknowledgments
Research from the authors’ laboratory discussed in this paper was supported by USDA TSTAR grant no. 2001-34135-11150, grant no. 2001-52101-11318 from the USDA Initiative for Future Agricultural and Food Systems Program and USDA NRICGP grant no. 2002-35203-12664. The authors are grateful to Dr Karen Moore for useful comments in preparation of the paper. This is Journal Series Number R-09679 of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.
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