SERVICES

 

  

Blastocyst

 The Animal Reproduction Company has highly qualified, skilled staff and excellent laboratory facilities.  We are the first company to provide commerical IVF services in Australia with 10 years experience in the field.  The services we provide fit into many categories. 

We can provide a total service including donor programming, oocyte collection and embryo production and transfer into recipients provided by the company.  Alternatively, we can process oocytes delivered to our laboratory through to transferable embryos with other providers involved in the oocyte collection and embryo transfer.  These options can be adjusted to suit clients requirements. 

  • Ultrasound Collection

Oocyte collections can be conducted twice weekly.  Ultrasound Collection does not have any adverse effect on future reproduction.  It is also possible to collect donors up to 100 days of pregnancy. 

The embryos produced can be transferred fresh into your recipients.  Alternatively, they can be frozen and transferred as a large group.

Donors can be collected on-farm or can be housed at Werribee near Melbourne.  It is possible to accomodate donors from both non-assessed herds and Johnes MAP assessed herds to allow them to retain their status.  Up to 40 donors can be collected per day.
Ultrasound Collection

Above: Ultrasound Collection of a Friesian donor calf
  • Surgical Collection

Surgical Collection of oocytes can be undertaken on young calves 8 - 10 weeks of age.  Calves can be collected up to three times surgically before entering an ultrasound collection program.  The advantage of this procedure is that much greater numbers of oocytes can be collected (20 - 30 oocytes per collection delivering 6 - 10 transferable embryos).

 
  • Donor Selection

The client will obviously decide which animal or group of animals is to be collected on the basis of their genetic merit.

There are however some factors relating to the number of oocytes likely to be collected from each animal which greatly affect the overall efficiency of the process which the client has to consider.

Firstly, calves in general provide many more oocytes than cows.  From good calves we would expect to collect 20 - 30 oocytes and from good cows 6 - 10 oocytes.  These figures are average figures and the calves are particularly variable in their oocyte yield.

If there are a number of donor calves available for selection then we can select the best donors with a laparoscopic examination.  Calves likely to yield a small number of oocytes can then be saved from unnecessary surgery.  Similarly adult cows can have an ultrasound prior to stimulation to select the best performers.  These tasks can be done by our staff or private cooperators we have trained.

  • Price Schedule

Our base price is $500 per 60 day confirmed pregnancy plus a $500 sign on fee.  This includes oocyte collection and embryo production.  Donor and recipient programming, traveling costs and cost of embryo transfer are additional.  Other arrangements such as donor agistment are by negotiation. 

COWS & HEIFERS HEIFER CALVES
8 mths & older 5 - 7 mths 2 - 3 mths
Ultrasound Ultrasound Surgical
6 - 10 eggs    10 - 20 eggs    20 - 30 eggs
2 - 4 embryos   4 - 6 embryos   6 - 10 embryos
     
Above:  Options available for Oocyte Collection