| The Saturday afternoon includes a presentation by Dr Jane Vaughan covering progress to date on the exiting embryo transfer procedure. Participation in the seminar includes an invitation to view Dr Vaughan's mobile Embryo Transfer Laboratory.
Starts 3pm Saturday November 6th
Embryo transfer (ET) is the process by which embryos are harvested from valuable female
alpacas and transferred into less valuable females for incubation and nurturing. This procedure
exploits the complementary genetic merits of elite male and female alpacas and has the
potential for major impact in genetic improvement and multiplication of the national herd.
The donor female can be mated and flushed multiple times to allow collection and transfer of
numerous embryos. Successful ET with live births has been performed over the last 3 years in
Australia, following work performed in commercial alpaca herds by Jane Vaughan and David
Hopkins. The ET procedure, superovulation and results-to-date will all be discussed by Jane
during the presentation. Here is a summary of the seminar topics:
- The physiological basis of breeding management: Learn how to set up a breeding program in your alpaca herd and understand the reasoning behind the program.
- Hear the latest results in embryo transfer. With more than 300 flushes performed, hear how you can benefit from embryo transfer in your herd.
- Find out how to prepare your herd to participate in an embryo transfer program:
(a) Set up a feeding regime for all animals in the program.
(b) Select and prepare donor and recipient females.
(c) Use of males for optimal results.
- The differences in techniques used to perform simple flushing of donor females will be compared with superovulation of donors for multiple embryos.
Dr Jane Vaughan graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science with honours from the
University of Melbourne in 1988. She began working with alpacas in 1991 while employed
in mixed practice in southern New South Wales. In 1996, Jane looked after more than 600
Peruvian alpacas at Cocos Islands Quarantine Station during their importation to Australia.
Between 1999 and 2001 she studied the control of ovarian follicular dynamics in alpacas as
part of an RIRDC-funded Doctor of Philosophy in Alpaca Reproduction at Central Queensland
University. She finished her thesis in November 2001 and is now developing techniques of
artificial insemination and embryo transfer in alpacas.
Cost of seminar is $45. Numbers are strictly limited. Online bookings available here. |
