Effects of Decreasing Doses of Follicle-stimulating Hormone on Multiple Ovulations and Embryo Production in Alpacas

Alpacas have a gestation length of nearly one year, and therefore females can only produce one offspring per year. In order to accelerate the genetic gain of a herd, superovulation and embryo transfer techniques can be used to produce multiple embryos from genetically valuable females where allowed by breed registries. Our hypothesis was that administration of decreasing doses of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) would induce growth of multiple preovulatory follicles resulting in multiple ovulations and increased embryo production. [...]