HOW TO TREAT THE SUB-FERTILE MARE


Fig. 4. Steps for submitting postmortem ovaries to a facility for oocyte collections and ICSI.


ture.5 However, not many equine facilities commonly stock these media in their practice. At the American Association of Equine Practitioners Annual Conference in 2014, similar blastocyst rates were obtained when the EH medium was replaced with a commercial complete embryo holding solution for the purpose of holding immature oocytes and could provide an alternative method for general practitioners.12 Once collected, the immature oocytes can be placed in either a 2-mL Nalgene cryogenic tube or 1-mL borosilicate glass viale filled with the chosen medium and maintained at room temperature, taking care to minimize air within the tube. It is recommended to wrap the lid with plas- tic paraffin filmf as extra security against leakage during transport. This container should then be placed into a larger container, such as a conical tube, also filled with the same media with the lid wrapped in plastic paraffin filmf for extra leakage prevention. These immature oocytes can then be sent in a por- table incubator set at approximately 22°C,c a pas- sive cooling devicea with the coolant cans removed to maintain stable room temperature or an immature oocyte specific containerg. This technique could provide an alternative method for equine practitio- ners, adept at postmortem oocyte harvesting, for shipping the oocytes to a laboratory offering ICSI and reduce the stress affiliated with emergency ovary shipment. The number of oocytes that can be collected per mare is variable and primarily depends on the num-


ber of follicles present on the ovaries. When oocytes were collected from mares of various ages and reproductive activity, an average of 11 oocytes were collected per mare.13 However, in our labora- tory, we have collected as many as 30 oocytes from the occasional mare, and no oocytes from mares with no follicular activity. In general, approximately half of recovered oocytes will mature in vitro and proceed to ICSI. Of that cohort, approximately 30– 50% will cleave and begin to develop into an embryo. Finally, approximately half of the early embryos will continue to develop into quality blastocysts worthy of nonsurgical embryo transfer. Many factors will affect these projections, some of which include mare age, duration and severity of illness, quality of semen, environmental factors, and ship- ping conditions.


4. Discussion


Offering postmortem ovary extraction and shipment to a laboratory established in equine ICSI can pro- vide an important avenue for practices with clientele interested in the procedure (Fig 4). As mentioned throughout this article, time is one of the most im- portant factors toward the success of this procedure. Preparing supplies and enacting a plan before the emergency phone call can also make a significant difference. If a practitioner is comfortable and has previous experience in scraping and processing post- mortem equine ovaries, shipping the oocytes to a laboratory with ICSI capabilities is the most ideal


AAEP PROCEEDINGS  Vol. 62  2016 185


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