Surgical recovery and successful surgical transfer of conventionally frozen–thawed embryos in the farmed European polecat ( Mustela putorius)

Abstract

Surgical transfer of in vivo produced conventionally frozen–thawed embryos of farmed European polecat ( Mustela putorius) was investigated as a part of an ex-situ preservation program which has the long-term aim of developing a genome resource bank for the endangered European mink ( Mustela lutreola). Eighteen oestrous yearling European polecat donors were mated once daily on two consecutive days using 13 fertile males. The donors were surgically flushed for embryos 8–9 days after the first mating. The embryo recovery rate was 60% (116 embryos/193 corpora lutea). The embryos were cryopreserved with 1.5 M ethylene glycol in a programmable freezer using a conventional slow freezing protocol. The thawed embryos were surgically transferred either after dilution with 0.5 M sucrose or directly without removal of ethylene glycol. To induce ovulation, eight recipient females were mated once daily on two consecutive days with vasectomized males starting 7 or 8 days before embryo transfer. The recipients received 7–11 embryos each and three recipients delivered a total of nine pups after a gestation length of 44–46 days. The embryo survival rate was 10% (9 pups/93 frozen embryos). This report describes the first successful cryopreservation of embryos in the Mustelidae family resulting in viable offspring. The low embryo survival rate, however, indicates that the freezing–thawing protocol needs to be improved.