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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #322242
Title: Microscopic morphology and apoptosis of ovarian tissue after cryopreservation using a vitrification method in post-hatching turkey poults, Meleagris gallopavo

Author
item LIU, JIANAN - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Long, Julie
item Elsasser, Theodore

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/31/2017
Publication Date: 5/25/2017
Citation: Liu, J., Long, J.A., Elsasser, T.H. 2017. Microscopic morphology and apoptosis of ovarian tissue after cryopreservation using a vitrification method in post-hatching turkey poults, Meleagris gallopavo. Poultry Science. https://doi.org/10.2141/jpsa.0170033.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2141/jpsa.0170033

Interpretive Summary: Poultry researchers and the industry have faced a massive loss of poultry genetic diversity in the past few decades, largely due to the high cost of maintaining live flocks. Techniques that are available to mammals, such as cryobanking of oocytes or embryos, have limited applicability for birds because of the structure of the avian egg; however, the ovary itself can be frozen, thawed and surgically transferred to a recipient hen. This type of procedure has been successful in chicken, duck and quail, but has not been attempted with turkey. It is important to understand the development of the ovary in the young turkey before attempting an ovarian transplant. In this study, we examined the structural changes of oocytes and follicular epithelium in the ovarian tissue of turkey poults at one, three, five and seven days of age, and determined that primordial follicles first appear in five-day old female turkeys. The appearance of the first stage of follicles in the ovaries of five-day old birds suggests that ovaries from day-one or day-three old birds may be better to preserve and use for ovarian transplantation.

Technical Abstract: 1. Microscopic morphology of ovarian tissue in post-hatching turkey poults at various ages was investigated. 2. Hematoxylin and eosin staining were used and the diameter of the oocytes and follicles were measured using microphotography. 3. Immediately after hatching, oocytes in one-day turkey poults were extra-follicular and small (<15 µm in diameter). Oocytes (about 20 µm in diameter) enveloped in follicular epithelium were first observed in five-day-old poults. The increase of the depth of the follicular epithelium is in accordance with the increase of the size of the follicle at the early stage of folliculogenesis. 4. These observations provide important information for future investigations in cryopreservation of ovarian tissue in turkeys and/or fundamental mechanisms involved in avian folliculogenesis.