Paragon Veterinary Group has launched a new on-farm cattle IVF service.
The practice is using a specially designed vehicle as a mobile ovum pick-up unit (OPU), meaning delicate eggs, known as oocytes, can be collected without cows having to travel to Paragon’s specialist facilities.
The collected oocytes are handled on-farm in optimum conditions, maximising the chances of producing the best quality embryos.
Rob Simmons, director and advanced breeding lead for Paragon, said: “Paragon has always been committed to producing the best quality embryos possible through its IVF programme and until now this ethos would have been compromised by undertaking OPU collections on-farm, where we would have been unable to look after the oocytes as well as we’d like.
“With our investment in the dedicated, custom-built van to provide the optimal environment for processing the oocytes, alongside a new device developed with our partners in Canada to protect the oocytes during the collection process, we are now able to finally offer an on-farm collection service without compromising the quality of the embryos we produce.”
Vets remove the oocytes from the cows on-site, maintaining controlled conditions, before they are taken to be fertilised.
Imogen Threlfall, Paragon assistant lab manager, said: “Previously we had to get farmers to come to our laboratory in Newbiggin, so that we did not compromise our standards. Now we can go to them.
“This means we don’t have to keep the cows at our practice — which can save the farmer time and money — but also means we can offer a service to people who might struggle to get the cows to us.
“The whole process is temperature controlled, so we are not losing our high standards for IVF — our results should be maintained, without any detrimental factors.”
It is too early to have had live births as a result of the new van, but Imogen said it is proving successful, with a large number of frozen embryos already achieved.
Paragon’s advanced breeding division is mainly based at its Newbiggin centre, where facilities include a specially designed temperature controlled collection building and dedicated laboratory.
The division offers a wide range of livestock breeding services, including conventional flushing, embryo transfer and semen collection for processing into straws for artificial insemination. The team is involved in a variety of research and development projects.
