Moving closer to 'true' equine IVF for clinical use

Three years ago, Penn Vet researchers reported a major breakthrough in equine assisted reproduction. Katrin Hinrichs, Harry Werner Endowed Professor of Equine Medicine, and colleagues developed a technique that would allow successful conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) with horses. In conventional IVF, the sperm does its job of finding and fertilizing a mare's egg, or an oocyte, in a Petri dish. Developing a method to motivate stallion sperm to do this—let alone do it consistently—had eluded researchers for decades.