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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Plant Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #405439
Research Project: Validate Causative Mutations in Agriculturally-Important Vertebrates

Location: Plant Genetics Research

Title: Oocyte recovery after overnight ovary transport provides an alternative source of cumulus oocyte complexes that are competent to produce live piglets

Author
item SPATE, LEE - University Of Missouri
item YIN, JIE - Sustainable Swine Resources
item SAMMEL, LAUREN - Sustainable Swine Resources
item PRATHER, RANDALL - University Of Missouri
item Redel, Bethany

Submitted to: Reproduction in Domestic Animals
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/3/2023
Publication Date: 10/24/2023
Citation: Spate, L.D., Yin, J., Sammel, L., Prather, R.S., Redel, B.K. 2023. Oocyte recovery after overnight ovary transport provides an alternative source of cumulus oocyte complexes that are competent to produce live piglets. Reproduction in Domestic Animals. 00:1-3. https://doi.org/10.1111/rda.14491.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rda.14491

Interpretive Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic created a complicated situation for slaughterhouses worldwide. Slaughterhouse processing lines became a “hot-spot” for the spread of COVID-19. To control the spread, many slaughterhouses were temporally shutdown, and the processing lines were restructured before reopening. One repercussion of these changes was that extra tissues for research were less likely to be collected. This created a critical loss of pig tissue for researchers. Here, sow ovaries were transported overnight without temperature control in a Styrofoam container. The oocytes, collected from the shipped ovaries, developed into embryos in a petri dish and were transferred into a recipient pig which established a pregnancy. This data provides a new and important source of ovaries/oocytes for researchers.

Technical Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic created a complicated situation for slaughterhouses worldwide. Slaughterhouse processing lines became a “hot-spot” for the spread of COVID-19. One repercussion was that extra tissues for research were less likely to be collected. This created a critical loss of oocytes for researchers that rely on slaughterhouse derived material to study maturation, fertilization, embryo development, or for production of genetically modified pigs. Commercial sources of pig oocytes are available, but the costs are prohibitive, and the companies were already operating at a maximum capacity for supplying the oocyte needs around the United States. Here we present an alternative method for production of competent oocytes. Sow ovaries were transported overnight without temperature control in a Styrofoam container. On average, the ovaries were received 20 h after harvest and were matured in vitro. The resulting oocytes were fertilized and developed into blastocyst stage embryos at a high efficiency. An embryo transfer was conducted by using the overnight transported ovaries, and was able to establish a pregnancy. This provides researchers a new and important alternative source of pig oocytes.