Successful in vitro fertilization in animals

In-vitro Fertilization Laboratory, headed by Ph.D.hab. Wojciech Niżański, was opened in December of 2010 in the Department of Reproductive and Clinic of Farm Animals of Veterinary Medicine Faculty. The first successful in-vitro fertilization of a domestic cat was conducted soon after opening the Laboratory. The team working in the laboratory is under the academic supervision of Ph.D.hab. Wojciech Niżański and Professor Jan Twardoń, consists of Ph.D. Agnieszka Partyka, Ph.D. Małgorzata Ochota, Doctors of Veterinary Natalia Mikołajewska and Anna Pinkowska.

Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) including in vitro fertilization, are used in domestic animals in order to accelerate the breeding progress. This is possible by obtaining a large number of offspring from genetically valuable specimens in a very short time. Taking into consideration wild animals, (particularly endangered species) in vitro techniques are supposed to get used gametes obtained from the living animals for in vitro fertilization purposes as well as transferring of the obtained embryos to female genitals of a recipients whose offspring is born. Due to current technology, this is the only available technique of maintaining or increasing a threatened animals' population. The work, in Wrocław Laboratory, will be focused on the biotechniques of reproduction of filidea (through a domestic cat to a lynx and a wildcat). There are also plans to conduct similar operations using horses, bison and deer. Due to the high interest of dogs breeders, there are projects concerning assisted reproductive techniques in animals canines.

Currently there several research projects being carried out in the Laboratory. These include: domestic cat in vitro fertilization, immature cat ovum vitrification, the assessment of suitability for the in vitro techniques of horse female gametes using fluorescent dyes. The research is to develop techniques for in-vitro fertilization of wild endangered felids, in which case a domestic cat is a perfect biological model.