Transcervical Versus Laparotomy Embryo Recovery: What Strategy Is Best for Embryo Bank Formation in the Caninde Goat Conservation Program?

By allowing for the creation of embryo banks, reproductive biotechnologies play an essential role in the preservation of endangered goat breeds' genetic diversity. This study focused on comparing both available embryo collection methods [laparotomy (LAP) vs. nonsurgical embryo recovery (NSER)] in Caninde goats to create an embryo bank for later use in a breed conservation program. Twelve females were superovulated and subjected to either the LAP or NSER technique for embryo recovery. The recovery rate was similar (p > 0.05) between NSER (86.8% +/- 5.6%) and LAP (92.8% +/- 4.0%). Moreover, there were no differences (p > 0.05) in the number of structures recovered, the viable embryos, and the freezable embryos per goat, respectively, for NSER (11.7 +/- 1.3, 11.2 +/- 1.5, and 10.2 +/- 1.1) and LAP (10.3 +/- 1.0, 8.7 +/- 0.7, and 8.0 +/- 0.8). Overall, 132 structures were collected out of 151 ovulations (similar to 12.6 +/- 1.2 corpora lutea per goat). Finally, the procedure duration time was also similar (p > 0.05) for NSER versus LAP, respectively: 32.3 +/- 3.3 versus 30.8 +/- 3.9 minutes. In conclusion, the NSER method results proved to be similar to the LAP technique in small-sized Caninde goats. It was noticeable, however, that the NSER technique is simpler and provides the possibility for successive procedures with few health risks and sequels for females. This study may hopefully boost in vivo embryo production programs in the Caninde breed, facilitating the formation of embryo banks and so assuring the availability of genetic diversity before any decline becomes irreversible.