Transfer of fresh and frozen-thawed rabbit embryos to produce live young

Live rabbits for immunological experiments were produced by transfer of fresh or frozen-thawed embryos. The transfer of 505 fresh embryos and 55 frozen-thawed embryos resulted in 141 young born alive, 81 of which lived between several months and several years. The control group consisted of 55 litters from natural matings. About 70% of the live-born rabbits of natural mating and 55% of the young delivered by embryo transfer survived for more than eight weeks. Average litter sizes were 5.7, 3.7 and 2.2 for naturally mated females, fresh embryo transfer recipients, and frozen-thawed recipients, respectively.