If you wish to employ a completely hands-on method to breeding your horses, cattle, or livestock then it’s high time that you invest in an embryo transplant microscope as well. This would enable you or your resident veterinarian to personally ensure that the embryos you’re waiting for are in good care.

What is an Embryo Transplant Microscope?
An embryo transplant microscope is basically used for monitoring and evaluating the conditions of embryos. Embryos may later on be transferred or injected into a breeding animal. If you are going shopping for an embryo transplant microscope, here are a number of factors you should consider:

Magnification – You don’t need to invest in a high power embryo transplant microscope. At the most, 40x total magnification would do when observing embryos under your microscope. What you do need to focus on however is buying high quality eyepiece and objective lenses. These will ensure that you get the best possible image of your sample.

Illumination – You need to use two types of illuminations to properly observe embryos: transmitted and incident illumination. Both illumination systems must be variable or allows you to control the amount of light you’re using on your samples. Fluorescent illumination may seem like a good choice, but it doesn’t offer good color condition and that’s vital for studying embryos. You also have to make sure that the illumination system you use for studying embryos isn’t the type to cause your microscope to heat up or that could affect the condition of your specimen.

Trinocular – A trinocular embryo transplant microscope would allow you to make use of both your eyes when observing and evaluating your sample but at the same time, it can also let a second person to view the sample. The third viewing port may be used as well for attaching an eyepiece camera to allow you to take photos of your specimen.

Portability or Outdoor Use – Another good thing to look for in an embryo transplant microscope is portability. There may be times when you’ll need to perform on-the-spot inspections and if you’re out in the middle of the fields with no electrical sockets to rely on, an electrically powered embryo transplant microscope would be of no use to you! That’s why you need something which is portable and battery-powered.

The Use of Stereo Microscopes in Embryo Transplant or Embryo Transfer
Embryo transplant microscopes are just another type of stereo microscope but they play an important role in the process of embryo transfer. The process discussed below is used for transferring embryos for cattle. There may be only slight differences between embryo transfers for cattle and horses.

Embryo transplant microscopes are used after embryo recovery or flushing. This is the part where embryos may be surgically or non-surgically taken out of the donor animal. Embryo transplant microscopes may take place one week after breeding. The process of retrieving embryos from the donor animal is simpler than it seems and takes no more than half an hour.

The donor animal is first given an epidural block to prevent straining. A rubber catheter may also be inserted to prevent fluids from back flowing. The fluid containing the embryos will however be drawn out because of the catheter. It will then be collected with use of a filter and into a cylindrical or dish container. Embryos located within it will then be observed using an embryo transplant microscope.

The embryo transplant microscope is then switched on at low power. The stage is prepared and used for setting up the sample. When everything is in place, the user may then finally view the embryos through the microscope. Adjustments with the eyepiece and objective magnification as well as light coming from the condenser and diaphragm should be made until the best possible image is attained.

Embryos may appear differently under various types of illumination, magnification, and microscopes but the International ET Society from Savoy, Illinois has recognized a standardized coding system which could be used for observing embryos.  This system has nine stages in all, with the first stage referring to unfertilized embryos while the last stage is used for classifying expanded hatched blastocyst embryos.

Quality grades are also used for classifying embryos. Grade 1 refers to embryos in excellent or good conditions. They contain spherical and symmetrical mass and containing cells of equal density, size, and color. Everything is consistent with the user’s expectations. Grade 4 embryos are however degenerating or already dead. They are not viable for embryo transfer. Embryos considered of imminent quality may be directly transferred to donor animals.

As you can see, without use of a good quality embryo transplant microscope, the embryos transferred may be of poor quality and prove to be a waste of time, money, and effort. Read more on this topic