In February Elina Mark, Jevgeni Kurõkin, Andres Reilent and Ants Kavak from the EMU went to Germany. The objective of the trip was to visit the MASTERRIND ET-station and embryo laboratories in Verden, and the OPU station in Nückel.

Elina, Jevgeni, Andres and Ants participated in several workshops – in embryo lab: in vitro production of bovine embryos, freezing of embryos, preparations for embryo transfers;  in OPU-station: Ovum Pick-Up techniques, donor preparation;  in ET-station: flushing of embryos from donors, recipient preparation for embryo tranfer. They also  visited one of the biggest cattle shows in Europe: Schau der Besten 2017, and went to AI and bull station in Verden.

During the visit and workshops EMU veterinarians gained new ideas about Ovum Pick-Up techniques: donor preparation – hormonal stimulation vs no stimulation; aparature used for oocyte aspiration and handling; embryo flushing techniques; recipient preparation – correct monitoring of the time of heat, optimal time for embryo transfer. In the embryolab they had an opportunity to learn how to take embryo biopsy with micromanipulator and how to perform embryo sexing and genetic analysis; additionally an overview of in vitro maturation, fertilization and culture techniques of bovine embryos, and of embryo slow-freezing method were given.

For the future use in our laboratory in EMU the visitors got MASTERRINDs media composition formulas for IVM, IVF and IVC.