Abstract

PFEIFER, L.F.M. et al. Cholesterol levels affect the quantity of follicles in beef cattle ovum pick-up. Arch. zootec. [online]. 2009, vol.58, n.221, pp.153-156. ISSN 1885-4494.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the number of follicles able to ovum pick up (OPU), the quantity, and quality of oocytes from donors showing different blood levels of cholesterol. For this experiment 5 crossbreed cows were used. Before the beginning of the experiment all cows received an intravaginal progesterone releasing device for 8 days. Two days before the device withdraw all cows received 0.150 mg of d-cloprostenol. The cows were submitted to ovum pick up each 4 days in a total of 6 sections. The cows were injected with 0.150 mg of d-cloprostenol each 8 days, at the moment of the device change. After the evaluation of blood cholesterol, cows were divided in two groups: G1 (cholesterol<50 mg/dl) and G2 (cholesterol>50 mg/dl). There was a difference (p<0.01) between G1 and G2 in the number of follicles/punction, 9.66 and 12.6, respectively, but we didn't observe difference in the number of recovered oocytes and its quality. These results have shown that cows with blood levels of cholesterol higher than 50 mg/dl have a higher number of follicles able to punction.

Keywords : Oocyte quality; Folliculogenesis.

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