Assisted reproductive technologies in cattle: applications in livestock production, biomedical research and conservation biology

ABSTRACT

In cattle, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can be defined as techniques that manipulate reproductive-related events and/or structures to achieve pregnancy with the final goal of producing healthy off spring in bovine females. The present review includes manipulation of female reproductive tract physiology, artificial insemination, multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, in vitro production of embryos, in vitro assisted fertilization, cloning, transgenesis, xenografting-germ cell transplantation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and sperm sexing. This review shows that several ART are being currently applied commercially in the cattle industry with acceptable results. On the other hand, others have low efficiency in producing cattle offspring and are predominantly applied in experimental settings. Several of these ART can cause detrimental effects at the prenatal and postnatal period and there fore they need to be improved. However, even if these bovine-related biotechnologies are properly improved, they might be more useful in the conservation of endangered ungulates, production of pharmaceuticals, or as experimental models for human reproduction.