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tory in Warrenton. “The combined use of equipment from ERC and the state lab could result in a product that can be used in the embryo transfer program at our facility,” he noted.
In the embryo transfer program, which operates from February through August each year, fertilized eggs are recovered from mares and implanted in specially selected “recipient” mares who serve as surrogate mothers for the developing fetuses. The technique is useful, Dippert explained, when a mare is extremely valuable and her owner wants multiple foals without waiting through lengthy gestations. Other mare owners want to show their horses. Still other mares suffer from obstetric problems, such as incompetent cervices or scarred uteri, that make it difficult or impossible for them to carry a normal foal to term. The process often takes two or three heat cycles. Donor mares frequently stay at the facility for 45-90 days.
Unlike most equine reproduction facilities, ERC makes mares from its own recipient herd available to donor mare owners if needed. In order to transfer an embryo from one mare to another, both mares must be in the same stage of heat cycle so the recipient mare’s body will accept the embryo and proceed with normal development. To begin, the donor mare must ovulate and be bred. On the seventh day of her cycle, the transfer team flushes the mare’s uterus with a modified saline solution. Any free- floating embryo can be seen under microscope in the filtered solution.
Once Dippert recovers the embryo, one of the facility’s licensed veterinarians makes a surgical incision in the recip
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