Harvesting and Evaluation of Riverine Buffalo Follicular Oocytes

The low superovulatory response and poor recovery rate of oocytes are major impediments to the application of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer technology in buffaloes. The present study aimed to evaluate the comparative efficacy of oocyte collection methods, season (low and peak breeding season), and ovarian status (presence or absence of corpus luteum) on the recovery rate and quality of recovered buffalo follicular oocytes. For this purpose riverine buffalo ovaries were collected from buffaloes slaughtered at Faisalabad Municipal Corporation Slaughter House. To study the efficiency of 3 different recovery methods the ovaries were dissected (n = 291), punctured (n = 301), or aspirated (n = 298). In all, 675 oocytes were recovered by dissection, 441 by puncture, and 363 by aspiration. The results of the present study revealed that a significantly higher (P 0.05) oocyte recovery rate was obtained from the ovaries collected during the peak-breeding season and from those in which the corpus luteum was absent. Of the 3 oocyte recovery methods used, dissection yielded the highest percentage (36.74%) of type I oocytes, followed by puncture (32.87%), and aspiration (19.83%).