Early embryonic mortality

Embryo mortality is a serious problem for farmers, practitioners and researchers. The establishment and maintenance of pregnancy is a highly complicated process involving the embryo, uterus and cow. Fertilization rates in cattle are generally between 90and100 % , with only 70% of all fertilizations resulting in a live birth. Therefore, 30 % of fertilizations are lost to some form of embryo death. Nearly 65% of all embryonic losses occur between days 6 and 18 of pregnancy.

There is no single fa cto r that ca n b e manipulate d that will c onsistently improve embryonic survivability. But, by managing genetics, nutrition, parity, stress, and infectious agents the incidence of embryonic loss can be decreased considerably.