In vitro fertilization for dairy cows

' Making cow embryos with in vitro fertilization technology ' - an interesting, hot and attractive scientific topic has attracted the research group of masters Phan Kim Ngoc - Department of Biology of the University of Science However, Ho Chi Minh City National University - pursuing nearly four years ago, has achieved initial results.

The results of this study promise to meet the practical requirements in Vietnam: it is possible to multiply high quality dairy cows. Ngoc added that in order to breed dairy cows for the livestock industry, many parts of our country have imported foreign cow embryos to transfer to local cows. This technical solution, though creating high quality dairy cows, is expensive (according to some online information sources, the price of milk embryos is about 300-500 USD / billet). That is not to mention the dairy cows created by this road are poorly adapted to the weather conditions of our country. This breeding path if deployed in a large scale will face many difficulties and troubles.

Meanwhile, another technical solution has been popular in many parts of our country: artificial insemination from imported sources of dairy cows. But the problem lies in the biological characteristics of the cow: one year they only have sex once, so the fertilization takes a lot of time; after 2-3 generations, it is possible to create dairy cows with desirable characteristics.

The research group discusses and evaluates, classifies dairy cows with reverse microscopes (Photo: ND)

Usually dairy cows created this way, the new F2 generation carries the desired genetic characteristics, but it takes 2-3 years to get a dairy cow. One of the most disturbing things is that it is impossible to control the sex of the calf, while raising cows for milk, the first priority is ' weak sex '. Farmers are often afraid of choosing to fertilize dairy cows because of fear of following this approach to ' embrace ' many male calves, the economic value is not as high as that of beef cattle.

These obstacles have been drawn from the practice of developing Vietnamese dairy herd for many years. And the research group of Master Phan Kim Ngoc has come up with a new direction: creating cow embryos using in vitro fertilization technology with the source of imported milk cows and sperm of local bulls to get milk. .

The team said that they had selected egg cells from good cows, could buy eggs instead of buying embryos like before. Or collect eggs from the good dairy cows that Vietnam has imported (purebred) and fertilize the sperm sources of pure Vietnamese bulls to create a new embryo stream. In this series of new embryos, it is hoped that embryos will gather the best, most beneficial and best traits that will later be created from these embryos best adapted to living conditions. , environment in Vietnam.

Also according to the research team, after selecting the preferred embryo lines, they will mass implant into pregnant cows to produce many different cows. From this cow herd will choose the strongest, most suitable parents . to breed. From there, the cells of the selected cows will be taken (or bullheaded cows) to conduct in vitro fertilization and will produce cows with desirable properties. And this stage can be mass produced.

Phan Kim Ngoc, Ph.D., said that the research group has now created embryonic flow from sperm of pure Vietnamese bulls and imported dairy cows' egg cells. The total number of embryos produced is 45, currently stored at minus 196 ^° C in liquid nitrogen. According to the research team, the embryo will be implanted in pregnant cows in order to look for dairy cows that are characteristic of many people are expected: can produce a lot of milk, adapt high, tolerance to lips good natural school .