Embryo transfer in goats successful at CLSU-SRC

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

Researchers of the CLSU Small Ruminant Center (SRC) and the Philippine Carabao Center have successfully shown that embryo transfer could be done in goats.

Despite a minimal budget of PhP350,000 for four years since September 2005, the SRC embryo transfer project has already produced two kids or newly born goats and five does are still expected to give birth soon.   

With Dr. Cruz as coordinator, Dr. Lucia M. Rigos of the CLSU College of Agriculture leads this project with the collaboration of Dr. Felomino V. Mamuad and Dr. Edwin C. Atabay, both of the Philippine Carabao Center, Allan Quiambao, Alvin P. Soriano and Fitz Vengerald L. Mamuad.

Dr. Cruz said this is their second attempt to conduct ET.  The first project started in early 2000 with a fund of PhP1 million from PCARRD.  With Dr. Cruz as coordinator and Dr. Marlon Ocampo as project leader, the first ET project produced four kids in three years.

Dr. Cruz and Dr. Rigos pointed out that the project also involves multiple ovulation and embryo cryopreservation.

In this project, hormone is administered to a donor doe (female goat) to develop and release more egg cells than normal.  The embryos are recovered from the uterus of the donor doe and then transferred into the uterus of a recipient doe at a similar stage of reproductive cycle.  Collected embryos that are not used immediately are frozen at -196 degrees C in liquid nitrogen in order to maintain their viability for a long period and, hence, can still be used in the future.

This biotechnology tool is important for five reasons, according to Cruz and Rigos: genetic improvement, biosecurity, lower cost of shipping novel breeds, salvage of genetic material, and storage of genetic material.

More rapid genetic improvement of goats is possible with this tool. Likewise, the risk of domestic and international   transmission of   animal diseases is greatly reduced through specific biological aspects of embryos, combined with special handling, processing and packaging procedures.  At the same time, the cost of shipping, quarantine procedures and potential risk exposure are much lower for embryos than for live animals. 

With this tool, it is also entirely possible to produce pathogen-free herds from donor animals of high genetic merit, but low health status. Moreover, embryos can be stored in liquid nitrogen and may be recovered and transferred to recipients in or out of the regular breeding season.

In this project, the recovered embryos were stored in liquid nitrogen tanks at the PCC.  Exactly 28 quality embryos have been recovered from genetically superior donor goats.  Of the 28, a total of 24 embryos were transferred to six recipient does.  One of them has already given birth to two kids.

In a related development, Cruz said the SRC is now into the production of triple cross goats for faster upgrading of native goats.

One way of doing this, he said, is to cross a native goat (doe) with an Anglo Nubian buck.  The progeny, technically called F1, is 50 percent native and 50 percent Anglo Nubian.  Then the F1 is crossed with a Boer buck to produce an offspring with a blood line of 50 percent Boer, 25 percent Anglo and 25 percent native.

Normally, a mature native goat weighs 20 kilograms (kg).  With triple crossing, the F1 would weigh 30 kg, while the F2 would be 35 to 40 kg, according to Cruz.

Another way of doing triple crossing is to mate a native with an Anglo.  The F1 is backcrossed to an Anglo to produce an F2, which would be eventually crossed with a Boer.  The blood line of the resulting progeny would be 50 percent Boer, 37.5 percent Anglo and 12.5 percent native.

In the second method, the F1 and F2 would weigh 30 and 40 kg, respectively, indicating a weight increment of 10 kg in the F1 and another 10 kg in the F2.    If the price of chevon is PhP100 per kg, an additional weight of 20 kg in the F2 would mean an additional income of PhP2000.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/harvest-time/)

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