Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Cattle: Applications in Livestock Production, Biomedical Research and Conservation Biology

In cattle, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can be defined as techniques that manipulate reproductive-related events and/or structures in order to achieve pregnancy. The topics of the present review include; manipulation of female reproductive tract physiology, artificial insemination, multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, in vitro production of embryos, in vitro assisted fertilization, cloning, transgenesis, xenografting-germ cell transplantation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and sperm sexing. Several ART are being currently applied commercially in the cattle industry with acceptable results. On the other hand, others have low efficiency in the production of cattle offspring and are predominantly applied in experimental settings. Several of these ART can infringe detrimental effects at the prenatal and postnatal period and therefore they need to be improved. However, even if these bovine-related biotechnologies are properly improved, they might be more useful in the conservation of endangered ungulates, production of pharmaceuticals, or as experimental models for the study of human reproduction.