Oakhill Veterinary Centre

• Services
  • Bull Breeding Soundness Examination
  • Mastitis and Milk Quality Control
  • In House Mastitis Lab
  • Fertility Management
  • Nutritional & Metabolic Monitoring Service
  • Herd Health Management & Benchmarking
  • Interherd/Interherd Plus & Total Vet Analysis Service
  • Infectious Disease Control & Health Status Accreditation
  • Sheep Medicine & Flock Health Plans
  • Embryo Transfer
• Information
• Our Team
• Newsletter
• Red Rose Dairy Discussion Group
• Opening Times

Embryo Transfer

What is a Problem Breeder Cow?

Cows that have had three or more services at regular (21-24 day) intervals and that are still not in calf.

What treatments can we use to treat problem breeders?

• 1) Prolonged action semen - using semen with an extended duration of action (e.g. Fertility Plus) or using semen extenders (e.g. SpermVital) may help those problem cows that ovulate at irregular times.
• 2) Receptal - we use Receptal in 2 ways
• a. 6 -8 hours before serving a Problem Breeder. This synchronises the egg to ovulate and so matches ovulation to your service. This will help those cows that ovulate at irregular times after showing heat.
• b. 11 - 12 days post service. This treatment is designed to boost the levels of circulating progesterone hormone which helps to reduce the number of embryos being reabsorbed at this early stage.
• 3) Metricure - using Metricure the day after service to decontaminate the uterus has been successful in treating individual problem cows.
• 4) Problem Breeder Embryos - implanting a beef cross embryo 7 days after service improves pregnancy rates by over 20% according to a recent UK study.

What have recent UK trials shown?

Some interesting findings in a recent UK study include:

• Problems at the most recent calving is the most common clinical condition when looking at repeat breeder histories
• Repeat breeder cows have a higher likelihood of having had a previous case of endometritis (‘Whites')
• Using repeat breeder embryos increases the pregnancy rate in repeat breeders from 30% to 52.6%

How does implanting an embryo help?

By implanting a second embryo into the cows' uterus the strength of the hormonal signals within the cow are doubled and so the likelihood of the cow reabsorbing the embryo(s) is reduced.

What cows would make good Embryo Transfer candidates?

• Cows should be cycling normally, showing regular heats every 21 - 24 days
• Cows should be vet-checked to make sure there is no uterine damage and no ovarian problems such as cystic ovaries
• Cows should be clean with no uterine discharge
• Ideally cows should be in reasonable body condition and good health. Chronically lame or high SCC cows are not ideal candidates!

What is the procedure?

• Cow AI'd as normal. Arrange vet visit for 6 -8 days later.
• Cow examined prior to implanting the embryo.
• We administer an epidural as this facilitates the procedure and should improve success rates.
• Embryo implanted and cow scanned 5 weeks later to check if successful.

Maximising success rates in embryo transfer 

These are some suggestions when dealing with embryo recipients.

Recipients

• Maiden heifers make the best recipients: they have higher conception rates.

• Cows can be used providing they have a good body condition score, and they are clean and cycling.       
• Embryos can be put in to heifers that were bulling 6, 7 or 8 days previously. The highest conception rates are likely to be achieved 7 days after a heat.
• A good reference heat is vital to the success of the transfer.
• Reference heats can be a natural observed heat or synchronised induced heats.
• Included heats (i.e. Following a CIDR and prostaglandin programme) work equally well providing good heat detection is undertaken.
• A wrong or inaccurate heat observation will mean no pregnancy as these recipients are not synchronised with the donor cow.
• Avoid feeding changes to the recipient group for four to six weeks either side of transfers. Try to keep the diet consistent.
• Mineral boluses such as All Trace or Cosecure might help. Knowing the trace element history of your farm is very useful in this regard.
• Grass variation and grass silage variation can affect conception rates.

Disease Control

After the going through the expense of an ET program we often neglect disease control. However we should do everything possible to minimise the likelihood of abortions and to boost calf viability. Consider the following when doing embryo transfer:

• Are the donors free of BVD? A simple blood test can identify virus carrier animals before implantation

• BVD,Lepto and IBR vaccination for all donors and recipients.

• Select recipients from herds where disease status is known. Of particular relevance in this respect are Johnes disease or Neospora.

• Consider screening recipients for Neospora infection. This disease is a very common cause of abortion.

• Where salmonella is known to have been a problem consider salmonella vaccination, another common cause of abortion.

• Monitor carefully mineral and trace element status of late gestation recipients to improve calf viability and survivial.

• Maximise calf survival against neonatal scour/septicaemia by vaccination against rotavirus, coronovirus and E.coli K99.

• Address any neonatal health issues and calf management on farm before recipients calve.