Surgical embryo transfer resulted in birth of live offspring in farmed blue fox.

ABSTRACT

Finland blue fox (Alopex lagopus) has great reputation in pelt industry around the world for its large size and top-ranking fur quality; however, both the herd size and the average survival rate of purebred offspring are rather low in production systems in China. Surgical transfer of blue fox embryos was investigated as a means to increase the population fox and also as a possible means to conserve endangered canine species. The animals were chosen on the basis of synchrony in natural oestrus. During the reproductive season of blue fox, 59 embryos were flushed from 6 farmed donors 9-11 days after the first insemination, and 53 embryos were transferred surgically into the uteri of the 6 paired recipients with natural synchronized oestrous. Two of the recipients littered 46-49 days after embryo transfer; one gave birth to 7 pups and the other 1 pup. This report describes the first successful embryo transfer in the farmed blue fox in China.