How to Manage Early Embryonic Death

Introduction
During the past 20 years, per cycle and per season pregnancy rates have improved markedly in well-managed horse farms. By contrast, early embryonic death (EED) has remained a significant cause of frustration and economic loss, with approximately 15% of pregnancies detected at day 15 after ovulation failing to survive to term.1 Moreover, the majority (>60%) of these losses occur before day 42 after ovulation, a period when pregnancy maintenance is critically dependent on progesterone produced by the primary corpus luteum (CL), and when a number of essential developmental events take place, including maternal recognition of pregnancy, embryogenesis and initial organogenesis, disintegration of the blastocyst capsule, endometrial cup formation and the onset of definitive (chorio-allantoic) placenta formation. […]