Techniques of surgical and non-surgical ova collection of superovulated cows

A comparison is made of the results of ova collection from 65 superovulated cows of varying ages using the conventional surgical technique and a non-surgical (transcervical) technique. Two types of apparatus, rigid and flexible, were developed for non-surgical collections. The problems associated with these techniques are discussed and some remedial measures suggested. A mean of 9.8 ova per donor cow were recovered by the surgical method compared to 2.9 and 3.0 ova recovered by the transcervical method using flexible and rigid apparatus respectively. Eight young cows, which had not been previosly subjected to superovulation and embryo collection, yielded an average of 5.6 ova per donor by the non-surgical technique.