Researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine marked a milestone in equine assisted reproductive technologies with the first successful use of frozen-thawed sperm for in vitro fertilization (IVF) production of equine embryos. These promising results, just published in Theriogenology, have the potential for broader clinical applications, as well as valuable opportunities to study fertilization and embryo development.
Ten veterinarians, researchers, and PhD students from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Assisted Reproduction Laboratory and the Equine Reproduction Service attended the International Symposium on Equine Reproduction held recently in Brazil.
The Equine Reproduction Service at the UC Davis veterinary hospital has added field visits and additional reproductive procedures to its lineup of services.
When Bella, a 7-year-old Thoroughbred maiden mare, went into labor last month, her owners Tom and Nicole Bachman were excited and sprang into action. But they soon realized something was terribly wrong.
The UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Equine Reproduction Service has a newly renovated clinical teaching and research space at the school’s Center for Equine Health. Dean Michael Lairmore, Executive Associate Dean John Pascoe, and Executive Assistant Dean Mary McNally officially unveiled the newly renovated space, which includes four custom-designed stocks and all new flooring. The Equine Reproduction Service team, led by Service Chief Dr. Ghislaine Dujovne and newly acquired faculty member Dr. Pouya Dini, also has a new student meeting space and expanded laboratory as part of the renovation.
Georgia, an 18-year-old warmblood mare, was brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital after a recent change of ownership. The previous owners disclosed she had been treated medically for chronic endometritis (inflammation of the uterine lining) over the past several years without resolution of the condition.
For more than 50 years, Michael Muir (yes, the great-grandson of conservationist John Muir) has been breeding horses with the help of the UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Equine Field Service and Equine Reproduction Service. His unique breed of the Stonewall Sporthorse wins national and international competitions--as well as the hearts of those who find a new lease on life from the therapy they provide.
At midnight on a warm summer evening in the barns at the UC Davis veterinary hospital, a first in equine medicine at UC Davis occurred. As Dr. Bruce Christensen, chief of the hospital’s Equine Reproduction Service, watched on, a mare gave birth to the first foal ever born at UC Davis by in-vitro fertilization. Through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), an in-vitro process of impregnating a mare was successful at the renowned veterinary school. This story’s origins, however, go back almost a quarter of a century.
