Effectiveness of the Ovarian Scraping Method in In Vitro Maturation of Equine Oocytes During the Breeding and Non-Breeding Seasons

Abstract

The current study aimed to study the feasibility of in vitro maturation of equine oocytes during the breeding and non-breeding seasons by using the ovarian scraping method. The collection of 752 ovaries resulted in 608 oocytes descending from 2824 ovarian follicles by the method of ovarian scraping at a rate of 21.53% and an average of 0.80 oocyte/ovary. During the breeding season, 432 oocytes were collected whereas 176 oocytes were collected in the non-breeding season. The results showed that the number of cultivable oocytes during the breeding season was 256 oocytes (59.25%), while the number of cultivable oocytes in the non-breeding one was 120 oocytes (68.18%) at the level of p <0.001. The application of oocyte collecting by scraping method allowed obtaining a number of 608 oocytes, of which a number of 376 oocytes (61.84%) were cultivable, the rest of 232 oocytes (38.16%) were classified as uncultivable. It is concluded from the current study that the application of the ovarian scraping method in horses contributes to obtaining a high and encouraging rate of oocytes that can be used in in vitro embryo production programs.