Ultrasonographic Fetal Sex Identification in Pregnant Sheep Derived from Natural Mating and Embryo Transfer

The objective of this study was to identify the migration period of the genital tubercle and the period of visualization of external genital structures in fetuses of the Dorper breed of sheep derived from natural mating and from fresh, frozen and vitrified embryo transfer. Transrectal ultrasound was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of Reproduction and Development Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 347 - 350
Main Authors:	Leopoldo Mayer de FREITAS NETO, Maico Henrique Barbosa dos SANTOS, Cristiano Rocha de AGUIAR FILHO, José Monteiro de ALMEIDA IRMÃO, CALDAS, Eduardo Luiz Cavalcanti, NEVES, Jairo Pereira, LIMA, Paulo Fernandes, Marcos Antonio Lemos de OLIVEIRA
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Japan THE SOCIETY FOR REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 01-06-2010
Subjects:	Animals Cloning, Organism - methods Embryo Transfer - methods Embryo Transfer - veterinary Female Genital tubercle Pregnancy Pregnancy, Animal Prepuce Reproducibility of Results Reproductive Techniques, Assisted Scrotal bag Sex Determination Analysis - methods Sheep Sheep, Domestic - embryology Ultrasonography - methods Ultrasonography, Prenatal - methods Ultrasonography, Prenatal - veterinary Ultrasound Vulva
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Summary:	The objective of this study was to identify the migration period of the genital tubercle and the period of visualization of external genital structures in fetuses of the Dorper breed of sheep derived from natural mating and from fresh, frozen and vitrified embryo transfer. Transrectal ultrasound was performed using a double-frequency linear transducer (6.0 and 8.0 MHz) to monitor 130 ewe fetuses distributed in the four treatments regarding embryo origin. The accuracy of the ultrasound was 100% in this experiment. The fetuses originated from controlled natural mating (NM) and from fresh (FrE), frozen (FE) and vitrified (VE) embryo transfer, with embryos collected 7 days after breeding. Migration of the genital tubercle occurred earlier (P<0.05) in NM (42.21 ± 2.86 days) than in FrE (43.98 ± 3.00 days), FE (44.97 ± 1.83 days) and VE (44.58 ± 1.97days). Visualization of the scrotal bag, prepuce and vulva occurred, respectively, earlier (P<0.05) in NM (45.22 ± 1.25, 45.95 ± 1.53 and 45.01 ± 1.03 days) than in FrE (48.91 ± 1.92, 48.52 ± 1.41 and 47.41 ± 1.41 days), FE (49.97 ± 1.08, 49.18 ± 2.00 and 47.64 ± 1.82 days) and VE (50.12 ± 1.66, 49.27 ± 1.61 and 47.93 ± 1.92 days). The results show that fetal sexing can be accomplished from the 50th day onward in fetuses produced by natural mating and from the 55th day onward in fetuses derived from fresh, frozen and vitrified embryos. It can also be concluded that real-time ultrasonography is a reliable tool for fetal sex determination in sheep taking into account both the location of the genital tubercle and the identification of external genital structures.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0916-8818 1348-4400
DOI:	10.1262/jrd.09-183T