theHorse: Sexing Foals, Mare Immune Systems, ET Techniques

theHorse.com, a website that specializes in making recent scientific news available to the equine public, has released new articles on a few topics of interest to breeders. We suggest:

Determining Equine Fetal Sex in Mid-Gestation

Researchers have confirmed that, by following a few recently described steps, veterinarians can sex fetuses over a much longer time period than previously thought and without clipping or sedating mares.

How Mare Immune Systems Respond to Breeding

While some species develop a local immune response, sending special protective cells to the uterus itself, mares don’t, researchers learned recently. Rather, they appear to send those cells elsewhere as soon as semen enters the uterus. Where they go, nobody knows (yet).

Equine Embryo Transfer Techniques Compared

Researchers identified a 90% pregnancy rate in mares impregnated using the Wilsher embryo transfer technique and a 70% pregnancy rate in mares treated using traditional embryo transfer protocols.