Lüsche,Germany, February 28 to March 01, 2020

This course is fully booked. Send an email to contact@agpferd.com if interested and we will add your name to the waiting list and maybe it works out.

In cooperation with Tierklinik Lüsche

This course provides advanced practitioners with state-of-the-art lectures on equine Embryo Transfer (ET), Ovum Pick-Up (OPU) and Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Do not miss out on the unique opportunity to improve your own hands-on clinical skills in practical procedures. The instructors will be Anthony Claes, Peter Daels, Carolina Herrera and Fernando Riera. The German Academy for Continuous Veterinary Education (Akademie für Tierärztliche Fortbildung) credits this course with 20 hours.

Program:

Friday, February 28, Tierklinik Lüsche, Lüsche

  • 10:00 to 13:00 hours lectures
  • Introduction to equine embryo transfer: Place of ET in your practice; goals and results; equipment and investments; general introduction about evolution of ET in Europe and Argentine, big centers, shipped embryos
  • Embryo collection: Different techniques; timing of flushing according to different situations; material and instruments needed; success rates; influence of fresh/frozen semen on the timing and size of the embryo; recipient synchrony; influence of the age of mare and time of the year; purpose of flushing (fresh transfer? Vitrification? Biopsy?)
  • Tips and tricks in the collection and flushing of the donor mare
  • Embryo manipulation: Searching the embryo, evaluating, manipulating, washing, preparing the embryo for immediate transfer; instrumentation and material needed for embryo manipulation and short-term conservation
  • Storing and shipping embryos: Cooled storage devices; embryo holding medium; temperature and storage duration; results; import/export regulations
  • 13:00 – Lunch
  • 14:00 to 18:30 hours lectures
  • Embryo transfer: Techniques and instrumentation; materials to use in Europe for ET
  • The recipient mare: Purchasing good recipient mares; criteria for choosing the right mare for transfer (synchrony/stage of cycle; evaluation by rectal palpation and ultrasonography); treatment of recipient mare after transfer; general management of recipient mares, synchronization protocols
  • Freezing and cryopreserving embryos: Why is it so difficult? Which embryos are best for freezing? Equine embryo freezing kits; is embryo collapse a good technique? Thawing ICSI embryos: both the in vivo embryos and the ICSI
  • Sexing and PGD: The technique of taking biopsy; analysis for sexing embryos; the future of PGD
  • Factors affecting the efficiency in an embryo transfer program

Saturday, February 29, Tierklinik Lüsche, Lüsche

  • 9:00 to 12:45 demonstrations and wetlabs
    Participants will be divided in 3 groups to run the following wetlabs of 1 h duration each
  • 9:00 – Wetlab A: Embryo flushing / Wetlab B: Embryo transfer / Wetlab C: Embryo searching, handling, washing
  • 12:45    Lunch
  • 13:45 to 18:30 hours lectures
  • Ovum Pick-up: Why choose it? the technique; required equipment; investments; pre-ovulatory follicle vs all follicles; oocyte recovery rates; collecting ovaries/oocytes post-mortem; shipping ovaries; costs associated with the procedure, comparison with conventional ET
  • Searching and handling oocytes
  • ICSI: The technique; Expectations; Requirements; Factors influencing the success rate (donor mare, stallion fertility; Is there a place for OPU in your practice? Which mares are good candidates to recommend OPU/ICSI? Systematic Approach to Mare Infertility by means of Assisted Reproduction Technologies; Transferring ICSI embryos in your practice
  • 19:30 – Barbecue in Vechta

Sunday, March 1 Tierklinik Lüsche, Lüsche

  • 8:30 to 12:00 wetlabs and demonstrations
  • Participants will be first divided in 2 groups to run two wetlabs of 1 h duration each:
    Wetlab A) Embryo Freezing and Thawing; Wetlab B) ICSI & Biopsy & Collaps. Thereafter follows for all together a demonstration of OPU
  • 12:00 – Lunch 
  • 13:00 to 16:30 Debates around
  • What are reasonable expectations with classic ET?
  • What are reasonable expectations with OPU?
  • What are reasonable expectations with ICSI?
  • What does it take to set up an ICSI lab? Facilities, instrumentation, quality control.
  • Else.