Embryology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Embryology, including details on stem cells, reproduction, transplants, cloning.

Embryo technologies and animal health - consequences for the animal following ovum pick-up, in vitro embryo production and somatic cell nuclear transfer.

McEvoy TG, Alink FM, Moreira VC, Watt RG, Powell KA

Scottish Agricultural College, Ferguson Building, Sustainable Livestock Systems Group, Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. tom.mcevoy@sac.ac.uk

Mammalian reproductive technologies that aim either to complement or to transcend conventional livestock breeding options have contributed to some of the most remarkable achievements in the field of reproductive biology in recent decades. In so doing they have extended our horizons in two distinct dimensions, the first concerning what it is technically possible to achieve and the second relating to the time-frame within which an individual's life-long developmental capability is initially established and ultimately realized or undermined. Our impressions of the benefits and values, or otherwise, of technologies such as in vitro embryo production and nuclear transfer are rightly influenced by the extent to which they impinge on the health of animals either subjected to or derived from them. Here, we consider some of the health implications of oocyte/embryo-centric technologies applied to farm livestock.

Published 21 February 2006 in Theriogenology, 65(5): 926-42.
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