The influence of quantity of uterus on uterine capacity was studied by removing one uterine horn and its adjacent ovary from 59 Duroc and Yorkshire gilts. The gilts were bred at the next estrus and slaughtered at either 2°4 or 1O5°5 days of gestation. For comparison 57 intact gilts were slaughtered at these same two stages of gestation. Twenty-five of 42 treated gilts were pregnant at 25 days with a mean of 14.5 corpora lutea (CL) and 8.7 live embryos while 34 of 39 intact gilts were pregnant with 13.7 CL and 9.3 embryos. There were no significant differences at 25 days between treated and intact gilts in mean number of CL or embryos. Thirteen of 17 treated gilts were pregnant at 105 days with a mean of 12.9 CL and 5.5 fetuses while 14 of 18 intact gilts were pregnant with 12.8 CL and 9.6 fetuses. The fetal survival of the intact gilts was significantly (P<.01) higher at 105 days than that of the treated gilts. These results suggest, with the number of potential embryos present in this experiment, that the quantity of uterine tissue does not limit uterine capacity until after 25 days of gestation.
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Fenton et al. (1970) studied this question.