Embryo Transfer - any thoughts, experiences?

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htobago

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You may remember that I posted recently about the top international endurance mare Sharifah who is booked to my very lucky stallion Tobago?

I think I mentioned that the breeding would be by ET, so as not to interrupt Sharifah's endurance career.

Just to update you - Tobago is now at Twemlows, and Sharifah and her recipient mare will be joining him there soon.

So, as I'm a complete numpty novice at this, I just wondered if anyone here had experience of doing ET with their horses, and/or had any thoughts on ET that might be of interest? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? How common is ET nowadays? How difficult is it?

The two mares (who are stable-mates) are apparently already cycling and already synchronized - for the first time ever, almost as though they knew what was required of them!

Another Arab breeder rang me this evening to say she'd visited Twemlows today and seen Tobago - looking very pleased with himself, squealing and bucking and bouncing round his box. So maybe he knows something important is up as well! (Actually no, now I come to think of it, that's just normal behaviour for him LOL!)

I've been told that (if all goes well, obviously) this may well be the first Arab foal born by ET in the UK! Does anyone know if this is the case? Are there records of ET foals somewhere?

Sorry to ask so many questions at once! Any thoughts much appreciated...
 
Hi, I don't have much experience with embryo transfer but when I was working on a stud farm a few years ago they tried embry transfer. The mare they took the egg off was a very good and proven mare, both competing and as a broodmare, however she was now quite old and they didn't want her to go through pregnancy and labour again so opted for embryo transfer. A surrogate mare was chosen and they cycles synchronised etc. It was successful and healthy foal was born the following year. The foal, biological mother and surrogate mother were all turned out together, it was funny that the foal looked the image of the biological mother but obviously treated the surrogate mother as it's natural mother
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. I also know of showjumping mare over here who won a Grand Prix the day that her biological daughter was born through embryo tranfer
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! I think it's quite popular nowadays, especially with competition mares and older mares.

Good luck with mares and stallion
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Thanks calzy! That is very reassuring.

Did they really do it all themselves, at home? I thought ET was only done at specialist AI centres.

I suppose I'm really wondering how good the chances are of a successful outcome - does anyone know of any stats on this?

Any other thoughts/experiences?
 
ET is HUGE at the moment here, especially amongst the polo fraternity who employ their own vets, etc, etc. Their success rater used to be about 70% I believe, but I would imagine it's now a bit better! And it's much, much cheaper here than in the UK. My Other Instructor bred 4 (!!) foals last year from his best jumping mare
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I am ETing one of my mares this year for the first time. She is an excellent showjumper that I still compete but is now 18 so don't want to put her at risk . ET is becoming very popular over here and the success rate seems to be high and getting higher every year. However it is only the big studs who carry it out and they insist you 'rent' a mare from them.( just another way for them to make more money...!).
I have seen the 'flushing out' proceedure taking place and it doesn't seem to overly effect the mare. If it did I wouldn't put my mare through it.
Having looked into it quite a lot I can't see any problems with it apart from the higher costs involved. It means I don't have to buy another competition horse and I can breed from my best mare without putting her at risk.
 
Thanks DAHH and PF
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Sounds like ET makes sense for your mare DAHH - but how mean of the greedy stud to insist that you use their recipient mare!
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Twems are letting Sharifah's owner use her stable-mate, which seems an ideal way to do things if one has a suitable mare. I think most centres here allow both options - one of their mares, or your own, and of course it's much cheaper to use your own.

Surely the French studs would make enough money just from the ET? I don't know the exact cost, but it's certainly not cheap, or not in this country at any rate!

I'm glad to hear the procedure is not distressing for the mare - although of course Sharifah's owner, like you, would never do it if it were.
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I see you are a newbie on here - welcome! - I must have missed your 'hello' thread.
 
ET is a pretty simple proceedure, involving literaly a "flushing" of the working parts in order to flush out the 7 1/2 day embryo. 4 x 1 litres of high viscocity fluid (to prevent the embryo from sticking to the sides of anything)enter the working parts by gravity and are removed by gravity. Once recollected, all the fluid is then filtered and the embryo is searched for under a microscope. Once found, it is inserted into the recipient mare in much the same way as fresh/frozen semen.

It's a very very simple process which normally takes our technicians about 30 minutes in total.

In France we pay 300€ for the entire proceedure from flushing to implantation. Which is about what it's worth. The recipeint mare then costs 2800€ and you keep up until the foals is weaned. So total costs are 3100€.

But...........................we use ET centres with recipient herds of either 300 or 700 mares. Thus they don't need to artficially synchronize the mares, as by law of averages the should be 10-20 mares in the correct condition each day. So, in England where the largest herd is 50 you'll find that your "on" costs are higher because the ET centres have to spend time and money synchronizing mares to the donor. So you will see that the work part of the deal in the UK is far higher, where the recipient part tends to be cheaper.

ET used to be an horrendous proceedure, involving an operation. Now though it's only marginally more involved than insemination, and we've never had a mare so much as bat an eyelid.
 
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