A22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 17,1983
BY TRISH WILLIAMS
QUARRYVILLE - The first
twin calves ever to be born from in
vitro fertilization were very ap
propriately delivered on Labor
Day, but without any labor to their
true mother. Penn’s Pride and
Quintus, as the twin bull calves
were christened, were conceived in
tissue culture glassware, and
carried to full term by a surrogate
mother.
Born in southern Lancaster
County at Pennstar Embryo
Transfer Clinic, the twins are the
culmination of years of in vitro
fertilization and embryo transfer
research at the University of
Pennsylvania, Veterinary School.
Penn’s Pride weighed in at 65
pounds at birth and Quintus at 45
pounds, according to Dr. Troop the
attending veterinarian. They were
born nine days early, said Troop,
but that is quite normal for twins.
Another set of twin calves, also
the result of in vitro fertilization
research at the Umversity of
Pennsylvania were born dead the
week before. The calves appeared
normal and went to full term but
had apparently died from calving
difficulties, reported research
specialist Karen Rennet. Thus
Quintus earned his name as the
fifth full term calf to be born from
the in vitro fertilization process.
Project leader for the in vitro
study, Dr. Benjamin Brackett,
referring to the study said, "It is a
collaborative effort between the
University of Pennsylvania,
Atlantic Breeders Cooperative,
and Dr. Troop.”
Working on a grant from the
National Institute of Health, with
support and fresh semen supplied
by Atlantic Breeders, and donor
and recipient cows supplied by Dr.
Troop, the team has broken new
barriers in the realm of animal
reproduction. Dr. Brackett a
reproduction specialists and PhD
biochemist, won world acclaim
when, Virgil, the first calf to be
born from an in vitro fertilization
was born on June 9,1981.
Brackett has been involved in in
vitro fertilization research since
graduation from the Umversity of
Georgia, Veterinary School in 1962.
After completing a PhD in
biochemistry, he joined the
Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology at the University of
Dr. Benjamin Brackett headed up the research team at the
University of Pennsylvania that is responsible for the birth of
the twins. Most of Brackett’s research has been carried out in
rabbits, and then extended to the cow.
First in vitro
Pennsylvania, and was given a
joint appointment in the
Veterinary School. In 1974 he was
promoted to professor of anunal
reproduction in the Veterinary
School, and thereby switched his
major and minor appointments.
Dr. Brackett presently serves on
the Board of Governors of the
International Embryo Transfer
Society. Several years ago
Brackett was called on by the
United Stales Congress to review
the field ot animal reproduction
and the associated new
technologies.
"Congress was especially in
terested in predictions for the
future,” explained Brackett. "So
we convened a small group of
experts in artificial insemination,
embryo transfer, and even cloning
and genetic engineering. We then
published a book two years ago
entitled New Technologies in
Animal Breeding.”
Brackett edited the book, and
helped to author it as well.
"Technology has evolved
rapidly,” said Brackett. "We could
probably add a chapter or two to
the book just from research in the
last two years since the book was
published."
Speaking more specifically
about his own research, Brackett
explains "Most of our work has
been carried out in rabbits, with
later extension to the cow. In vitro
fertilization is now feasible in
cows, we proved that with the birth
of Virgil m 1980.”
"The real challenge has been to
treat the sperm outside the female
reproductive tract,” Brackett
claims. "The sperm must be
conditioned or capacitated to be
able to fertilize the egg.”
Much of Brackett’s research has
focused on in vitro sperm
capacition. "We learned how to do
this through a senes of ex
periments. We learned that we
could add a high salt medium to
glassware containing the sperm to
remove proteins from the sperm
surface, that would enable the
sperm to pentrate the egg and
fertilize it.
The egg us recovered surgically
from the donor cow. In a warm
room degrees Centigrade), the
egg is inseminated by combining it
with fresh ‘raw’ semen in tissue
culture glassware. Haw semen
twin calves born in Pa.
The first live twin calves born from in vitro fertilization, were born on Labor Day in
southern Lancaster County. The twin bulls, Quintus, left, and Penn’s Pride, were
conceived in tissue culture glassware at New Bolton Center, the University of Penn
sylvania, Veterinary School. Pictured with the twins are Or. Carl Troop and the
surrogate mother.
meaning that it has not been
treated with preservatives or
extenders. The fertilized eggs are
cultured in the warm room for a
couple ut days in the warm room,
by that tune they have reached the y
4 cell stage and are surgically
transfered into the oviduct of a
recipient cow.
"This is a surgical procedure the
way we do it now,” Brackett
explains. "We hope to develop it, to
make the recovery of eggs easier,
by recovering by means ot
laparoscopy. And-if we can culture
the fertilized eggs a little longer in
the warm room, we should be able
to transfer them into the uterine
horn through the cervix, non
surgically.
What are the advantages of in
vitro fertihzaUon over in vivo
fertilization'/
—The first advantage Brackett
points to is to overcome infertility.
“For example if eggs have been
collected repeatedly from a cow,
then the man-made damage might
preclude sperm reaching the egg
or undergoing capacitatiun,
properly becoming prepared fur
fertilization. Yet we may still be
able to get eggs that are normal
from the cow that we can transfer
into another cow. There are
already a number of valuable cows
that are candidates for this
procedure. 1 think within a year
this procedure will be in place as
far as the initial efforts to over
come infertility in these animals.”
—To maximize the utilization of
semen from a valuable bull and
eggs from a valuable cow. Fur
example there are a number of
very valuable bulls that are dead,
and only a limited number of
ampules of their frozen semen
remains. It is desirable to have as
many calves as possible from
these valuable animals. So by
bringing a few sperm cells from
the frozen semen into close contact
with a number of eggs from
valuble cows, it should be possible
to get more offspring than might
be obtamned with just an in
semination of the ampule into one
cow, where you expect to gel only
one calf.
—To rapidly assess the fer
tilizing ability of spenn. This
would greatly expedite young sire
proving.
—ln vitro fertilization used in
concert with genetic engineering
can very rapidly improve
livestock. Such genetic
engineering techniques as nuclear
transfer, or direct injection of
desirable genes into the pronuclear
eggs, would be easier with a large
number ot synchronously
developing embryos.
pjf
Brackett is pictured here with Virgil, the world's first in
vitro calf. Virgil was born in June 1981, and still remains at
New Bolton Center, the University of Pennsylvania’s large
animal research facility.
JTS? S3SSTS ES *"T r
,f’ , It ,n . u exmlaruUn t> define the conditions, develop the
thing is to look at human in vitro K i * . , .
fertilization as an accepted clinical l 0 , t ~' d e ferll,lzaUon
procedure today. This has evolved
$90,000 semen theft
WESTMINSTER, Md - An
estimated $90,000 of Holstein bull
semen was reported stolen from
Coldsprings Farm Sept. 8, by
Marlin K. Hoff, owner of the farm
and the stolen semen.
Hoff, who serves on the board of
directors for Sire Power, Inc., said
be believed the theft had to have
occurred between 9 to 12 p.m.
Thursday night while be was
driving to Sire Power headquar
ters in Tunkhannock, Pa. to attend
a board meeting the following day.
"The semen could be accounted
for at 9 p.m.,” said the Carroll
County dairyman, “But at 12 p.m.
our hired man noticed the tank was
missing. He thought I must have
taken the tank with me to
Tunkhannock, it was not until the
following day that the theft was
reported to the State Police. ”
Two liquid nitrogen canisters
were taken from a storage shed.
Hoff said the two canisters, one 5
gallon and one 2.5 gallon, con
tained only Holstein semen. Most
of the semen was from very
wm I
popular sires including, Elevation,
Tony, Chairman, Spirit, and Bell.
Approximately 95 percent of the
semen was in French straws, the
other five percent was in ampules,
reported Hoff.
Hoff was not carrying any in
surance on the semen, and will
sustain a total loss on the stolen
semen.
Because farmers and “semen
jockeys” buy and sell semen
among themselves, and there are
no unique identifying marks on the
straws or ampules, Hoff gives very
little hope of being able to track
down and recover the semen.
In a phone conversation Hoff
stressed, “If a farmer does not
want to buy stolen semen, they
should buy only from certified
representatives of bull studs.”
Maryland State Police are
urging anyone who suspects they
are being sold stolen semen, or
who has any information relating
to the stolen semen to contact them
at the Westminster Police
Barracks, phone (301) 848-3111.
ill