Development of bovine and rabbit preimplantation embryos in vitro after cryostorage

Abstract

Evaluation of quality and viability of bovine and rabbit preimplantation embryos following cryopreservation was the objective of this study. Bovine embryos of Holstein breed (n= 88) at the morula-early blastocyst stage (on the 7^th day after the first insemination) and rabbit embryos (n= 135) from New Zealand breed at the morula stage (90–92 hpc) were cryopreserved by the two-step vitrification procedure. Following thawing the embryos of both cattle and rabbit were cultured for 48 hours in order to reach expanded blastocyst stage, and then were analyzed for the developmental rate and viability (embryo cell number and incidence of the dead cells). The results demonstrate that cryopreservation can only slightly affect embryo viability and quality do not compromising their further development. Therefore, vitrification techniques tested in our study can be used for cryopreservation of embryos of national cattle and rabbit breeds for the purpose of long-term storage of embryos in the animal gene bank.