With around 60% of the world market, Brazil is the leader in the in vitro production of bovine embryos, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most used biotechnique in the country for that purpose.
That is because IVF can increase the number of descendants of a cow in less time than other reproductive biotechniques like artificial insemination and classic embryo transfer.
Embryos produced in vitro are those obtained outside the maternal organism in lab conditions. In this process, the oocytes (eggs) are aspirated before their time, when they are still immature. After that, they are matured, fecundated, and cultivated in a laboratory. After seven days of the in-vitro culture, the embryos produced are transferred back to the receiving cows, the surrogates.
However, the disadvantage of using IVF is that embryos produced in lab conditions have lower quality than embryos produced in the maternal organism, and thus they are less resistant to freezing, many of which becoming unable to sustain a pregnancy. Moreover, the operational cost of IVF is high due to the time and the lab infrastructure required in the production routine.
Embrapa established an innovative biotechnique that features all the advantages of IVF plus an additional benefit: it does not need a laboratory to be performed. It is called IFIOT - Intrafollicular immature oocyte transfer. Breeders can obtain the embryos with the same expeditiousness of IVF without ever having to leave their farms. Eggs are aspirated in the same way as in IVF, but instead of being matured in a lab, they are cultivated inside the ovulating cow's body, taking advantage of its natural reproductive process. The egg fecundation happens through artificial insemination, and seven days later the developed embryos are collected and transferred to the surrogate cow, similarly to a classic embryo transfer.