The rate of genetic gain in New Zealand’s livestock industries is being boosted by the increased uptake of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Dairy companies and producers are taking up IVF technology and are using it to their advantage to achieve highly specific outcomes.
Xcell Breeding is a global export accredited semen and embryo service, which has teamed up with Vytelle, the world’s fastest growing IVF company operating 21 labs globally, to establish a satellite centre in the South Island of New Zealand.
Vytelle uses the most modern IVF technique available, without the use of hormones, to multiply genetics from elite-performing animals.
ADVANTAGES OF IVF OVER CONVENTIONAL METHODS
Xcell managing director Greg McKay is a stalwart of the NZ artificial livestock breeding sector, and is seeing first hand how IVF is fast-tracking genetic gain.
“IVF is a lot simpler to execute in terms of time and management – when you are looking at a conventional embryo services (MOET), there is a lot of work that goes into a series of follicular stimulating and hormone injections, which have to be adhered to in a very timely and accurate manner,” he said.
“When it comes to Vytelle’s IVF method, you can just put the donor into a crush and aspirate her ovaries, it is hormone free, there is nothing to do with the donor leading up to IVF, and you can complete that every two weeks.”
McKay reiterates that having no donor set up means no added labour for the producer.
“In terms of the workload it is extremely efficient and effective, and it is a lot more reliable around fertilisation, plus with IVF you can still complete pickups 90-100 days into the pregnancy of the donor.”
Being able to collect additional embryos safely while the animal is pregnant allows producers using IVF to acquire more genetics from the very best of the herd, while it is still producing offspring naturally itself.
IVF SET TO OVERTAKE MOET FOR ENHANCED RESULTS
Mr McKay adds that while the cost per embryo may be slightly higher with IVF than traditional MOET, this isn’t taking into account the savings on your time, semen utilisation and the potential pace of genetic gain.
“One of the biggest advantages we are seeing through the work we are doing with Vytelle is in the dairy heifer space,” he said.
“You have heifers that are 10-12 months that you can get embryos from using IVF which is really fast tracking genetic gain – those same heifers wouldn’t potentially respond to a conventional MOET series of injections.
INCREASING UPTAKE IN DAIRY, SLOWER IN BEEF
While there has been fast uptake of IVF in the US from beef producers, in NZ the dairy sector is leading the charge.
According to the American Embryo Transfer Association, an organisation tracking embryo production and use in the US, beef embryos are outpacing dairy embryos. In 2022, for instance, of the 745,684 embryos reported, 55% were beef, the remainder were dairy.
In NZ, uptake in the dairy industry has been substantial this year with IVF being added to many producers’ usual breeding programs, according to Mr McKay.
This comes back to ongoing perceptions around results and the need for improved, more simple education and information around the different methods.
Which is why he has been encouraging them to use both types of embryo work in their programs, and decide for themselves the best practice for their operation.
“For those who have had good results with MOET, by offering them IVF and MOET together, from the same donors and putting the same embryos in similar cows on the same day on the same farm, we can compare the IVF and MOET results and they have real data,” Mr McKay said.
“Plus it is a great opportunity to get a larger amount of embryos in a shorter amount of time – with MOET you have to wait 4-6 weeks between flushes before you can start again…by joining it with IVF we have clients amassing 50-60 embryos from a series of donors in a short amount of time which makes it a huge advantage.”
THE FUTURE OF IVF IN LIVESTOCK GENETICS
Major dairy semen marketing companies in New Zealand are teaming IVF with sexed semen to even further increase their desired outcomes.
Mr McKay said utilising both technologies was allowing organisations to be more targeted and make better decisions.
It could also be increasing the baseline best practice genetic gain of 2-3%, and by using the very best of the herd and bulls available, taking it up to as high as 10%.
“The issue with sexed semen is the sperm cells per straw are lower – so if you don’t have the timing right for insemination and you flush a cow and you have 15-18 unfertilised embryos that’s heartbreaking. You don’t have that issue with IVF…it is a lot more reliable with fertilisation.”
The dairy industry in New Zealand has always been keen to lead the way when it comes to advances in technology, but Mr McKay says more and more livestock producers from other sectors are getting involved in embryo work, and he anticipates the practice would only continue to grow.
“A lot more producers are realising they have to utilise technology available in terms of genetic gain to make those gains, because if they don’t they get left behind,” he said.
“Commercial farmers are getting smarter and smarter around making every dollar count…so if studs are selling genetics to commercial farmers they need to be well ahead of the game.”