TABLE OF CONTENTS. Dear Colleagues

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1 December 2009 Editor: Alfonso Gutiérrez-Adán TABLE OF CONTENTS Presidentʹs letter S. Merton th Anniversary A.E.T.E.: Special Contributions. History of AETE C Ponsart, Y Heyman and M Thibier. Some Pictures of the last A.E.T.E, Scientific Meeting in Poznan. 7 A.E.T.E. Next Conference: Kuopio, Finland, 10th 11th September Report Workshop II of Poznan Meeting: use of sexed semen in superovulated cows. R Saner European statistical data of bovine embryo transfer activity 2008 S Merton. 12 A.E.T.E. Newsletter Alfonso Gutiérrez-Adán, Editor agutierr@inia.es No.32 December 2009 A biannual published by the European Embryo Transfer Association Web Site: Letters to the Editor are welcomed. Please include name, address, telephone, FAX, and address 4 Dear Colleagues This year our 25th annual meeting was held in the city of Poznan, a beautiful city in the Western part of Poland. The meeting was attended by over 140 delegates, originating from 17 European countries and even from USA, Canada, South Africa and Brazil. For the second time in a row an exceptional high number of attendees were welcomed indicating the strong interest in our society. The meeting attracted ET practitioners (about 1/3 of attendees) as well as scientific researchers and professors (2/3 of attendees). Also this year the meeting was extended with a social event on Saturday night, a welcome addition to the programme which was initiated last year in Pau. As last year, this additionally event was followed by a large part of the AETE participants. The scientific programme was organised in 4 sessions including 17 oral presentations, 2 workshops and poster sessions including 76 posters. The presentation of Dr William Richard Twink Allen as the recipient of the AETE Pioneer Award was a special moment of the meeting. Dr Twink Allen received the award due to his real pioneering work in the field of equine embryo transfer. Tom Stout showed in the introductory speech examples of his pioneering developments and discoveries which laid the foundation on which the commercial equine industry is now thriving. Twink Allen s lecture Historical and modern aspects of equine embryo transfer was outstanding. 1

2 The other invited lectures were given by Kevin Sinclair, Johan van Arendonk, and Pat Lonergan. Kevin Sinclair gave a review about maternal diet, nutrient uptake and metabolism in the bovine embryo. He stated that Holstein-Friesian cows are often bred while being insulin resistant. This is according to Sinclair one of the major causes of the decreased fertility. Johan van Arendonk discussed the effect of reproductive technologies on inbreeding. His main conclusion was that optimum breeding schemes could be characterised by: decreased importance of sib information; increased accuracy at the expense of intensity; and factorial mating strategy. The combination of increased female reproductive rate and DNA markers offers good opportunities to increase genetic gain while restricting inbreeding. Pat Lonergan gave an overview on embryonic loss in cattle. He focussed on the role of progesterone. He showed the effect of the progesterone concentration on the advancement of conceptus elongation and pregnancy but also indicated that in the literature contradictory results on the role of progesterone have been reported. As every year, four students were selected to participate in the Student Competition. The Board members judged the students on their abstract, poster and oral presentation. Finally, Ahmed Gad was the prize winner with a presentation on differences in global transcriptome profile of bovine blastocysts derived from superovulated or synchronised cyclic heifers. The two workshops this year were very practical orientated, focussing on donor management prior to superovulation, co-ordinated by Ian Kippax and on the use of sexed semen in superovulated cows or heifers, co-ordinated by Rainer Saner. Due to the organisational set-up (group formation, flip-over discussions, plenary presentations), members were actively involved in discussions and exchange of information. In the presentation of the main sponsor, Bioniche launched a new product called Embryo Amor. This flush medium contains a PGF2alpha antagonist which should protect the embryo for prostaglandins that are induced by manipulation of the uterus and would result in a 10% higher pregnancy rate. The message was really taken by the members. A. Gad was the winner of the student competition. To celebrate our 25 anniversary with such a successful scientific and social programme was something I hoped for. Therefore I would like to acknowledge the excellent organisation of this meeting by the Local Organising Committee: Prof. Dr. Jędrzej Jaśkowski (chair) and all his co-workers and students of the Department of Agricultural Veterinary, Faculty of Animal Breeding and Biology, university Poznan. I also would like to thank all the sponsors and exhibitors for their financial support allowing us to organise a successful meeting like this. Next year our 26th meeting will be held in Kuopio, Finland on the 10th and 11th of September. The Local Organising Committee, chaired by Prof. Heli Lindenberg, has already made some important preparations. Also most of the invited speakers have confirmed their presence (e.g. lectures addressing Genomic selection & reproduction techniques and Life imaging of reproductive processes in the oviduct ). Therefore I am convinced that we can look forward to an interesting and enjoyable - 2-

3 meeting. More information will be placed on the AETE website as soon as possible. AETE BOARD MEMBERS Congratulations to Dr. Twink Allen for the pioneer award Looking back on 2009, I think the financial crises and the low milk price really affected our industry. Although the number of flushes in 2008 was still close to that in 2007, the number of embryo transferred was already affected (-7.1%). Probably, the summary of the ET activities of 2009 will show us a further decline, both in flushes and embryo transfers. However, as the milk price is slowly rising again, 2010 may be the year of recovery. I wish you all the best and I am looking forward to see you all in Kuopio next year. Sybrand Merton, The Netherlands, President sybrand.merton@crv4all.com Urban Besenfelder, Austria, Secretary urban.besenfelder@boku.ac.at Claire Ponsart, France, Treasurer claire.ponsart@unceia.fr Alfonso Gutiérrez-Adán, Spain, Vice President agutierr@inia.es Frank Becker, Germany fbecker@rvc.ac.uk Peter Vos, the Netherlands p.l.a.m.vos@uu.nl Ian Kippax, U.K. i.kippax@btopenworld.com Serge Lacaze, France Serge.lacaze@midatest.fr Rainer Saner, Switzerland rsa@swissgenetics.ch Jędrzej Jaskowski, Poland jasko@au.poznan.pl A.E.T.E. Secretary Urban Besenfelder Reproduction Centre Wieselburg University of Veterinary Medicine Veterinaerplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria Tel: Fax : urban.besenfelder@boku.ac.at Sybrand Merton President A.E.T.E December 2009 website:

4 25 th Anniversary A.E.T.E. Special Contribution: Celebrating 25 years : History of AETE By Dr Claire Ponsart, Yvan Heyman and Michel Thibier In 1982, a committee was formed in France to set up an association that would promote the application of ET in Europe. This leaded to a first meeting organized in Lyon in 1984, with Pierre Mauléon as first President. Following the start-up period (see report from Yvan Heyman), the society organized annual meetings since As 2009 was the 25 th meeting of our society, it is interesting to have a look to the 25 past years, to thank the people who contributed to the success of the society and to measure the progress made. First AETE meeting (Y Heyman) As far as I can remember, the first Scientific meeting of the Association Européenne de Transfert Embryonnaire was very different from the actual meetings of our society on several aspects meanwhile the founder objectives of AETE remain the same 25 years later: These objectives were, and still are to facilitate diffusion and practical application of knowledge on embryo transfer in different domestic animal species. In fact the official status of AETE were deposited at the Prefecture du Rhone, Lyon France, only on December 4 th 1986 and its siege social was the Marcel Mérieux Foundation who supported our association for many years. But the decision to create such an association resulted from a meeting of its founding members during a dinner on March 11 th 1982 at the restaurant of the Salon de l Agriculture, porte de Versailles in Paris. Despite this administrative delay, the first Scientific Meeting was held on October 20 of 1984 at the Fondation Marcel Mérieux, 17 boulevard des Belges, Lyon, under the auspices of its first President Pierre Mauléon. Attendance was about 30 people from France, UK, Germany and Belgium, 8 lectures were given in French on different technical aspects and each lecture was simultaneously translated into English by Pr Michel Thibier (he did perfectly this job for several years when he succeeded Pierre Mauléon as President, until AETE meetings moved to English official language). Programme: - Importance of LH in FSH preparations used for bovine superovulation (Yves Combarnous and Daniel Chupin) - Embryo transfer in sheep (Suzanne Torres and Yves Cognie) - Cryopreservation of embryos at early cleavage stages (Yvan Heyman) - Embryo peptides and role of trophoblastic cells (Yves Ménézo) - Sanitary aspects of embryo transfer (Michel Thibier) - Use of embryo transfer for breeding schemes (dairy) (Jean-Jacques Colleau) - Technical aspects of embryo microsurgery (Joachim Hahn) - Microsurgery of bovine embryos (Jean-Pierre Ozil) Unfortunately, by this time there were no proceedings edited for this meeting. The first printed proceedings of AETE gathered the communications and abstracts of the 3 rd scientific meeting Lyon 4-5 September It was followed by many others, increasing in size during these 25 years. During the first 10 years, annual meeting took place in Lyon, which was partly explained by the financial support from the Fondation Marcel Mérieux. This company was the first sponsor of our society and - 4-

5 helped constantly the organization of meetings up to 2004 (with Dr Jean-Marc Lalloz as last MERIAL representative). One exception to this Lyon rule: Cambridge in 1991! Afterwards, the AETE meeting moved to all parts of Europe (Figure 1), but is still coming back regularly to France as a history reminder. Figure 1: History of the AETE meetings Regarding the board constitution, the equilibrium between different European countries has always been respected. As pioneers in the board, the preponderant role of Michel Thibier (France), Joachim Hahn (Germany) and Ray Newcomb (UK) has to be noticed. The AETE society got 8 different Presidents within 25 years, representative from France (Mauléon Pierre and Thibier Michel), Germany (Meinecke Burkhard and Kanitz Wilhelm), Italy (Galli Cesare, Lazzari Giovanna) and the Netherlands (Den Daas Nanke, Merton Sybrand; Table 2). During the 25 past years, the board regrouped 7 board members, together with a Vice- President, a Treasurer and a scientific Secretary (Table 1). Most of the board members participated actively (or still continue!) to the life of the society during 1 or 2 periods of 4 years, as Frank Becker, Jean-François Beckers, Robert Brittain, Ingrid Brück Bogh, Maurice Boland, Henrik Callesen, Torben Greve, Franck Hunzicker, Jedrzej Jaskowski, Jiri Kanka, Ian Kippax, Serge Lacaze, Alban Massip, Raymond Newcomb, Rainer Saner, Sanchez Garcia L., Stewart Scott, Jan Van Lieshout and Peter Vos. Since 1993, the AETE gives a pioneer award to one European researcher or practitioner, who significantly contributed to the development of one or more embryo related technologies. The prestige of this distinction shows that the AETE society is well recognized in the animal embryo field in Europe (Table 1). Since the society printed proceedings in 1987, a total of 95 lectures mainly dedicated to the farm animals (n=82; 86 %), and especially the cattle production (n=49; 52 %) has been filed. However, other species such as cat, dog, horse, mouse and also endangered species were also considered. It is interesting to note that embryo transfer (ET) represents the most frequent topic, reworked in 15 different lectures, indicating that the practical aspects of ET have always been an important component of the AETE purposes. With the increased use of in vitro produced embryos in the 90 s, the development of in vitro embryo production and the combination of different biotechnologies to enhance genetic selection have been also largely discussed (Table 2). In the past ten years, embryo maternal interactions seemed to represent an increased scientific interest, with 5 lectures between 2005 and As embryos were considered as the - 5-

6 safest mean of exchanging genetic material since 1990 (cf Michel Thibier, AETE 1990), the AETE also contributed to highlight the sanitary advantages of embryos and got a leading role in this topic. Table 1 : Past Presidents, Treasurers, Secretaries and Pioneers of AETE Year Pioneer President Vice-President Treasurer Secretary 2009 Allen William (Twink) Merton Sybrand Gutierrez-Adan Alfonso Besenfelder Urban 2008 Brem Gottfried Ponsart Claire Lazzari Giovanna Ratky Jozsef 2007 Dieleman Steph 2006 Newcomb Ray Lonergan Pat 2005 Renard Jean-Paul Kanitz Wilhem 2004 Greve Torben Lalloz Jean-Marc 2003 Wilmut Ian 2002 Wrathall A.E Fulka Josef Den Daas Nanke 2000 Cassou Robert 1999 Massip Alban Galli de la Fuente Martinez Monsallier Georges Heyman Yvan 1998 Mauléon Pierre Cesare Julio 1997 Moor Robert 1996 Willadsen Steen Meinecke 1995 Gordon Ian Burkhard 1994 Thibault Charles Greve Torben 1993 Hahn Joachim Saumande Jean 1992 Dufour Raymond 1991 Thibier 1990 Michel Chupin Daniel 1989 Hahn Joachim 1988 Chupin Daniel Valette I Mauleon Pierre 1984 Mahon Jeff Plat Jean-Claude Table 2 : Most frequent topics presented in AETE lectures MOST FREQUENT TOPICS PRESENTED IN AETE LECTURES Nb EMBRYO TRANSFER 15 IN VITRO EMBRYO PRODUCTION 10 GENETICS 9 EMBRYO MATERNAL INTERACTIONS 9 SUPEROVULATION 7 SANITARY ASPECTS 6 SPERM / MALE EFFECT 6 FERTILITY 6 USE OF BIOTECHNOLOGIES IN DIFFERENT SPECIES 5 EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT 5 To conclude, the AETE society has many people to thank for its growth and success. Firstly, the hard work and commitment of the membership, especially those that have served on the board of members, has been very important. Secondly, the organization of meetings is only feasible with a great involvement of the local organization committee and sponsors. During the last years, a large number of companies supported constantly our society and therefore makes possible the continuation of the scientific and social adventure of AETE. - 6-

7 Some Pictures of the last A.E.T.E. Scientific Meeting Dear Colleagues, the very successful previous meeting of the Association was held in Poznan (Poland) the last 11 and 12th of September It was a pleasure to visit Poznan, a wonderful place for the last AETE meeting. I would like to thank the Local Organising Committee, and especially Jedrzej Jaskowski, for the organization of the fantastic meeting. Attached you can find some pictures of the congress. I am pleased to have participated in this AETE meeting, and I am confident that it will be another productive year for the Society and its members. Alfonso Gutierrez-Adan. 7

8 The 26th Scientific Meeting of the A.E.T.E will be held in Kuopio -Finland 10 TH - 11 TH SEPTEMBER 2010 Invitation On behalf of the European Embryo Transfer Association the local organizing committee cordially invites you to the 26th scientific meeting of the organization in Kuopio, Finland, from the 10th to the 11th of September can be reached in less than an hour by air from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and by road or rail the journey only takes a few hours. The backdrop for the summer atmosphere in the Kuopio region is provided by lakes and islands, great to explore on boat cruises, as well as by the landscape of forestcovered hills. Boating, hiking and other forms of outdoor recreation are really spoilt for choice here. The region also boasts a wide variety of cultural activities and events. The lakes, which abound with fish, guarantee good catches throughout the year. Leisure spas with their bubbling pools and baths offer relaxation and invigoration whenever you feel the need. Kuopio is a University City, with inhabitants in the lake district of the Eastern Finland. Come and have a great congress. The members of the Local Organizing Committee: -Heli Lindeberg, chairman, Heli.Lindeberg@uef.fi Finnish Embryo Transfer Association, University of Eastern Finland -Hannu Myllymäki, Hannu.Myllymaki@faba.fi Embryo Center -Jaana Peippo, Jaana.Peippo@mtt.fi MTT Agrifood Research Finland -Seija Vahtiala, Seija.Vahtiala@fabapalvelu.fi FABA Service, representative of artificial insemination -Iris Kaimio, Iris.Kaimio@fabapalvelu.fi FABA Service The Conference Location: Place: Hotel Scandic in Kuopio Conference room for up to 130 people with a beautiful view over the lake. Dimension: 18.0m x 8.0m x 3.0m (LxWxH) Plenty of room for the posters. Lunch and coffee will be served just outside the conference room. Welcome to the Kuopio Region The Kuopio region is situated in central Finland, in the verdant province of North Savo, which is interspersed with thousands of lakes. The region 8

9 1 REGISTRATION FEES Kuopio 2010 Full/Associate Member Before 15th July 2010 Full/Associate Member After 15th July 2010 Student Member Before 15th July 2010 Student Member After 15th July 2010 Euros Membership Fee Enjoy Your Visit Kuopio and the surrounding 8 districts offer wonderful experiences throughout the year. In summer a boat cruise is almost a must in this region dominated by lakes, or you can admire the spectacular lakeland scenery from the Puijo Tower and take a closer look at the city of Kuopio on a sightseeing tour. You can enjoy the facilities of the leisure spas all year round. Various interesting museums, likewise open all year, provide an insight into the local heritage and way of life. You ll also find special events, theatre and music, and many other opportunities for fun, relaxation and retreat. Members who pay their annual fee but do not attend the Meeting will receive a copy of the proceedings 70 This price includes: - participation at the Meeting (two full days) - two workshops - published proceedings - lunch and coffee breaks - social events 1 How to travel -By plane: 1 hour Finnair or Blue1 ( Direct bus transfer from airport to the hotel -By train: 4 hours VR ( 50 Proposed hotels: Hotel Scandic in Kuopio in Scandic Hotel: ~94 / single room ~112 / double room Language The official language of the conference is English. Scientific Secretariat AETE board Fees for Sponsoring AETE Meeting Main Sponsor General Sponsor Exhibitors Euros Euros Euros Costs for advertisement in the Newsletter (2 issues) for one year (mailed to ~700 members) Full color back page Full inside color page Half inside color page 800 Euros 600 Euros 400 Euros 9

10 OUTLINES OF THE WORKSHOP ABOUT STATUS OF THE USE OF SEXED SEMEN IN SUPEROVULATED COWS Organizer: Rainer SANER AETE organized this workshop during the annual meeting in Poznan on September 12th, The use of sexed semen in super ovulated cows is an old wish of our clients and the ET practitioners. All of us know the big marketing potential of ET if we could guarantee 90% female calves with the same superovulation results as commercial ET. Over the last years more and more sexed semen became available on the European market and so we were very interested to see how much of this sexed semen is used in super ovulated cows and how are the results. Last winter we send out more than 120 questionnaires to all members of the society we knew the addresses from. Unfortunately only a few send the questionnaire back and we received only data from 8 countries who made some flushes with sexed semen (Norway, Finland, Nederland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and France). For this workshop 4 speakers presented their data. Here we print a very short abstract of each presentation. Claire Ponsart: Data were reported from 5 ET teams (Amelis, Bel Air Embryons, Embryo Top, Franche Comté Embryons, Midatest ; Figure 1), corresponding to a total of 145 embryo recoveries in 2008 (n=27) and 2009 (n=118). Flushes in cows have been limited, as the means number of unfertilized oocytes was very high in comparison to classical insemination under field conditions (Table 1). In donor heifers, viability of embryos was higher; however embryo production results were decreased in comparison to unsexed semen. Different modalities of insemination have been performed among ET teams and can be summarized as following: Quantity of sperm in straws: 2 millions (n=3), 8 millions (n=2) Number of straws : 1 straw per insemination (n=4) or 2 straws (n=1) Time of insemination : 12 and 24 h (n=3), or 6-8 h and 24 h following estrus (n=2) Handling of straws: Use of ET or AI guns Site of semen deposit: Normal (uterus body, n=3) vs Horns (n=2). The comparison between normal or deep AI has been tested by Embryo Top in 33 donor cows. However, embryo production results were not significantly improved. Some further experiment are needed before using this technique under field conditions, as testing more concentrated straws (5 millions of sperm) to inseminate donor females. Table 1: Number of embryo recovered in donor cows inseminated with sexed semen (data recorded from 5 ET teams) Figure 1: Number of donor females flushed by 5 French ET teams in 2008 and 2009, following an insemination with sexed semen DEGENE- RATED UNFER- TILIZED VIABLE TOTAL Cows (62) 12,4 2,3 7,5 3,0 Heifers (83) 8,8 1,0 3,4 4,4 TOTAL (145) 10,3 1,6 5,2 3,8 10

11 Peter Vercauteren: "In 08/09 CRV flushed about 80 cows and heifers after insemination with sexed semen. The % of transferable embryos is 68% when used in heifers and 33% when used in cows. As you can see the results are good when sexed semen is used in heifers. Artificial insemination technique we used: - 2 mio sperms/straw - Special handling 37 C water temperature, during 40 sec Insemination as soon as possible into corpus uteri - Don t inseminate to early - Use of 3 straws ( 3x1 or 2+1) First insemination 12h after onset of heat Second 8 h later or 12 h later Third 8 h later Iris Kaimio: In Finland the first embryo flushes with sexed semen were done in with normal insemination protocol, total amount of semen was 4-6 million sperms. The results were not very good: 41% of flushes of cows resulted in no transferable embryos. After that, the insemination protocol was changed to deep insemination, minimum three inseminations/flush and with a total amount of semen at least 10 million sperms. First 21 collections resulted in average 8,3 transferable embryos. So far we don t have any information about bull effect, pregnancy rates and the sex of the calves. After the presentations we had a very interesting discussion with a lot of questions and very good comments and we heard a lot of personal experience from the audience Many thanks to all participants. Rainer Saner Corresponding addresses: - Iris Kaimio, FABA Service, Finland: iris.kaimio@fabapalvelu.fi - Claire Ponsart, UNCEIA, France; Claire.Ponsart@unceia.fr - Peter Vercauteren, CRV, Nederland; Vercauteren.P@crv4all.com - Rainer Saner, Swissgenetics, Switzerland; rsa@swissgenetics.ch Rainer Saner: Between September 2008 till April 2009 Swissgenetics flushed some super ovulated cows and heifers three times inseminated with sexed semen with 2 mio sperms per straw and other cows and heifers with 5 mio sperms per straw. Three different bulls were used. 2 mio sperms per paillette 5 mio sperms per paillette Conventional semen heifers cows heifers cows heifers cows No of flushes Total recovered/ flush Transferable embryos/flush % transferable embryos % 27 % 57 % 65 % 60 % 59 % 11

12 EUROPEAN STATISTICAL DATA OF BOVINE EMBRYO TRANSFER ACTIVITY 2008 Sybrand Merton The embryo transfer statistics, as presented during the 25th AETE meeting in September 2009 in Poznan, Poland, are summarised here in this annual report. The data presented include numbers on embryo production (MOET, OPU-IVP and Genetic recovery-culled cows ) and transfers (fresh and frozen) for bovine and other species (sheep, swine, goat and horse) and are based on information from 20 countries, including data from Germany which were lacking during the presentation in September. As every year, these data have also been forwarded to the International Embryo Transfer Association (IETS Data Retrieval Committee) for collation on a world-wide scale. Embryo production The total number of flushed donors was 17,522 (excl. UK) which was close to that of last year (- 1.9%). This resulted in a collection of 115,344 transferable embryos (incl. UK). The mean number of transferable embryos per flush was A remarkably break through the limit of 6 embryos per session since at least Data from 2008 and previous nine years are shown in Figure 1. number of flushes The total number of OPU sessions was 3,753. An increase of 8.1% compared to last year. This resulted in a production of 6,751 transferable embryos. The mean embryo production efficiency was 1.80 embryos per session. Data from 2008 and previous nine years are shown in Figure 2. number of OPU sessions embryo per OPU session ,5 2 1,5 1 0, year year Fig. 2: In vitro embryo production in Europe (number of OPU sessions and number of embryos per session). In 2008, four countries in Europe applied OPU-IVP for breeding and commercial embryo production. These countries were the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France (see Table 1). This is significantly lower compared to the number of countries reporting the use of OPU-IVP between 1998 and 2001 (Fig. 3) year embryo per ET session OPU; n countries year year Fig. 1: In vivo embryo production in Europe (number of flushes and number of embryos per flush). Fig. 3: In vitro embryo production in Europe; number of countries in which OPU was used as an embryo production technique. 12

13 The total number of Genetic recovery-culled cows sessions were 511. A decrease of 35.6% compared to last year. This resulted in a production of 1,081 transferable embryos. The mean embryo production efficiency was 2.1 embryos per session. The majority of these sessions were performed in Italy (see Table 1) Table 1: Application of OPU-IVP and Genetic recovery (ovaries from culled cows ) in Europe in Countries OPU-IVP sessions Genetic recovery-culled cow sessions Netherlands 1, Germany 1,569 Italy France 30 2 Romania 8 Czech republic 4 Finland 1 In total 123,344 transferable embryos were produced in Europe in Embryo transfers The number of embryos transferred amounts to 101,149 (Figure 4). A decrease of -7.1% compared to last year. The proportion of frozen embryos was 59% and 56% for in vivo and in vitro embryos, respectively. The proportion of IVP embryos was 5.5%. Table 2: Application of MOET in Europe; Top 12 European countries ranked according to the number of flushes performed in Countries Flushes Embryos Transferred France 5,856 27,304 Netherlands 3,498 16,914 Germany 2,628 14,077 Italy 2,089 12,353 England 6,110 Spain 633 2,511 Denmark 489 2,757 Switzerland 485 2,700 Czech republic 469 2,194 Ireland 410 2,219 Finland 336 3,205 Sweden Other species Data for embryo transfer activities in sheep, swine, goat and equine are reported in Figure 5. This year the number embryos transferred in sheep was almost doubled compared to last year. The trend of increased embryo transfer activities in equine continued in 2008 after a decline in This latter was probably related to the incomplete data collected that year. This year 7 countries reported activities of which Italy also reported the production and transfer of 48 IVP embryos. Activities in swine and goat remained limited and data were only reported by Czech Republic and Romania, respectively transferred embryos year embryo transfers Sheep Swine Goat Equine year Fig. 4: Total number of embryos transferred in Europe. Distribution of the number of flushes and in vivo derived embryos transferred among the top 12 European countries is shown in Table 2. Fig. 5: Number of embryos transferred in Europe; other species 13

14 Summary An increase in in vitro embryo production activities (+ 8.1%) No chance in total number of transferable embryos produced A decrease in the total number of embryos transferred (-7.1%) Growth in ET activities in equine continued Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all participants who collected the embryo transfer statistics for their country and I am looking forward to their contribution for the coming year. New datasheets will be sending out early next year. 14

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