Update on Foal Production Using Oocytes Collected from Ovaries Shipped Postmortem in a Clinical Program

Oocytes recovered postmortem are the last resource to obtain foals from a mare that suffers untimely death. We previously reported the clinical production of 10 foals via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) of oocytes collected postmortem from ovaries of 16 mares (2006-2009).1 We have also briefly presented clinical postmortem ICSI results in relation to ovary shipping temperature and duration (20 mares, 2010-2012).2 In that study, there was a tendency for higher blastocyst formation but a lower pregnancy rate for oocytes from ovaries transported at 10-19o C than for those shipped at higher temperatures. Here we evaluate cases received in 2012-2014 to determine if that tendency was repeated. We categorized ovaries from 47 mares, 2-26 years of age, by ovary temperature at arrival: A) < 10o C (3- 13 h transportation time, 2 mares); B) 10-19o C (6-9.5 h, 5 mares); C) 20-29o C (0.5-9 h, 22 mares); and D) 30-38o C (< 5 h, 18 mares) ...