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Embryo transfer

Collecting embryos from a valuable cow and placing them in other cows to carry to birth.

A tile drawn for this page, not a picture of Embryo transfer.

Also: ET, MOET, in vitro fertilisation

Embryo transfer lets one high-value cow have many more calves than she could carry herself. She is given hormones so that she releases several eggs at once, is inseminated, and the embryos are flushed out about a week later and placed in recipient cows, which carry the calves to term. Embryos can also be frozen, or produced in the laboratory by in vitro fertilisation of eggs collected from the ovaries. The first calf from a transferred embryo was born in the United States in 1951. The method is used for elite dairy and beef animals, for exporting genetics and for multiplying rare native breeds; India has used it for Gir and Sahiwal herds.

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