This study was carried out to determine suitable selection factors for recipients and embryos which could improve pregnancy rates following bovine embryo transfer. The experiment included 52 surgical transfers from February, 1985 through June, 1986 performed on Kyungpook Breeding Center in southern Korea.
The pregnancy rate was highest when recipients were in estrus within 6 hours before the donor to 12 hours after the donor (78.3% versus 50% for recipients in estrus earlier or later). Pregnancy rates were acceptable following culture under field conditions for up to 17 hours. More recipients over 15 months of age (76.1%) remained pregnant than those under 15 months (66.7%). Embryos transferred during the months from February to July resulted in higher pregnancy rates than those transferred during the remaining 6 months (77.3% versus 57.1%).
Transferable embryos were classified A (best) to C (worst) ; those graded A or B resulted in significantly higher pregnancy rates than those graded C (81.8% and 73.3% versus 25.0%, p<0.05). Pregnancy rates among recipients of the Korean native breed tended to be higher than among Holstein recipients (100% versus 71.1%). Similarly, when the embryo was transferred to the right uterine horn, pregnancy rates tended to be higher than when it was transferred to the left (81.3% versus 65%). Pregnancy rates did nat differ according to the stage of development of the embryo; they were for morulae, tight morulae, blastocysts, and advanced blastocysts, respectively: 75.0%, 66.7%, 75.0%, and 77.4%.
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