144—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 19,1978
‘Test
CLARKSVILLE - In the
wake of publicity concerning
birth of the world’s first
human “testtube” baby last
month in England, con
siderable interest was
generated in a demon
stration of the bovine
counterpart recently at an
agricultural field day in
central Maryland.
The event was Farm
Family Field Day, otherwise
known as the tench statewide
forage crops and dairy cattle
management field day, held
Aug. 3 at the University of
Maryland’s agronomy-dairy
research farm near here in
Howard County.
Dr. Richard F. Davis,
dairy science department
chairman at the University
of Maryland in College Park,
explained that an embryo
transfer demonstration was
included for the first time at
this year’s field day because
it is a fairly new and exciting
concept.
Its use can permit only
average heifers to act as
incubators for calves from
cows with superior genetic
potential. Combined with
inducement of
superovulation in the donor
animals, embryo transfer
allows rapid increase of
offspring from an out
standing female. For
example, 20 fertilized ova
were taken from two .donor
cows during the Maryland
field day demonstration on
Aug. 3.
Embryo transfer, as
practiced in cattle, involves
flushing fertilized ova
(embryos) from a donor cow
in which superovulation has
been induced by means of a
hormone serum taken from
pregnant mares or sows.
Fertilization is ac
complished by artificial
insemination.
Prospective recipient
animals are prepared by
administering a drug for
estrus control. The purpose
is to adjust their heat cycles
to coincide with the
reproductive cycle of the
donor cow.
Ova (eggs) flushed from
the donor animal are
examined under a
microscope to identify those
that are fertile. At least one
fertilized egg (embryo) is
then transferred with a
pipette to each recipient cow
(usually heifers), Actual
carry-through of the tran
sferred embryo-to full-term
pregnancy occurs about 50
per cent of the time.
This is about in line with
the success rate for artificial
insemination, or even
natural breeding, observes
Dr. Davis.
The University of
Maryland dairy science
tube 9 calves previewed
at Md . dairy day
chairman reported that
artificial insemination of
dairy cattle was first
demonstrated on a scientific
basis in 1936 by agricultural
researchers at Rutgers, the
state university of New
Jersey A.I. first got started
on a commercial basis in the
U.S. about 194546.
He noted that embryo
transfers now are in the
stage where artificial in
semination was a third of a
century ago.
One of the pioned com
mercial firms in the embryo
transfer field is Via Pax
Corporation International.
Established four years ago,
Via Pax has European,
Canadian and U.S. branches,
respectively, in Milan, Italy;
Woodbridge, Ontario, and
Elizabethtown, Pa. The
latter office has been in
operation since Jan. 1,1978.
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For the field day,
arrangements were made
with Via Pax to demonstrate
the actual process of embryo
transfer. A team of five
specialists from the U.S.
office at Elizabethtown, Pa.,
participated. The team
included two professional
veterinarians and a man
with a Ph.D. degree in
animal physiology.
At times; it seemed that
half of the 400 field day
visitors were crowded into
barn No. 4 at the University
of Maryland’s agronomy
dairy forage research farm
to watch the three-hour
demonstration.
This year’s attendance
was slightly higher than
average, despite threatening
skies and forecasts of ram,
reported Dr. Charles M.
Sales - Service
Chance, field day coor
dinator.
Included in the total were
80 dairymen and their
families from the Finger
Lakes area of upper New
York state. They stopped by
during a chartered bus tour
of farms in the Mid-Atlantic
area.
Also in attendance were 10
citizens of Bangladesh. They
were in the fourth week of a
16-week course set up by the
Institute of Applied
Agriculture at the Univer
sity of Maryland in College
Park. The course is funded
by the World Bank through
the Bangladesh Agricultural
Development Corporation.
Most of the course par
ticipants are workers or
managers or seed farms in
their native land.
Sponsoring organizations
for Farm Field Day were the
Maryland Agricultural
Experiment Station and the
departments of agonomy,
dairy science, agricultural
engineering and Extension
home economics - all based
at the University of
Maryland in College Park.
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