BIOTECHNOLOGY IN ANIMAL REPRODUCTION

With the exponential increase in the use of assisted reproduction in horses in Portugal, equine embryo cryopreservation became an important technology not commercially utilized in the country until 2019. Therefore, we dedicated quite an amount of work to establish a successful protocol to be used in the country, and in 2019, we obtained the first horse born in Portugal from an equine vitrified embryo. That was done successfully, and in 2019 several pregnancies were established with commercially produced cryopreserved equine embryos (foaling’s expected in 2020), and to this day we keep manufacturing vitrification medium to distribute to private practitioners. Services of diagnostic and treatment of reproductive pathologies and assisted reproduction in horses kept in high demand. Other major goal of this R&D is related to development of novel treatment for Neoposra caninum, a disease that cause abortion in cattle. Thus far there is no effective treatment or vaccination of this parasitic disease.