Melatonin improves the efficiency of super-ovulation and timed artificial insemination in sheep

Yukun Song; Hao Wu; Xuguang Wang; Aerman Hairy; Xiaosheng Zhang; Jinlong Zhang; Yingjie Wu; Zhengxing Lian; Juncai Fu; Guoshi Liu; Abulizi Wusiman

doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.27598v1

Melatonin improves the efficiency of super-ovulation and timed artificial insemination in sheep

Yukun Song¹, Hao Wu², Xuguang Wang¹, Aerman Hairy¹, Xiaosheng Zhang³, Jinlong Zhang³, Yingjie Wu², Zhengxing Lian², Juncai Fu², Guoshi Liu ², Abulizi Wusiman ¹

1 College of Animal Science, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China

2 National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Breeding of the Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing, China

3 Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Tianjin, Tianjin, Tianjin, China

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27598v1

Published: 2019-03-18
Accepted: 2019-03-18

Subject Areas: Agricultural Science, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology
Keywords: Melatonin, Sheep, Pregnancy, Superovulation, Embryo transfer

Copyright: © 2019 Song et al.
Licence: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

Cite this article: Song Y, Wu H, Wang X, Hairy A, Zhang X, Zhang J, Wu Y, Lian Z, Fu J, Liu G, Wusiman A. 2019. Melatonin improves the efficiency of super-ovulation and timed artificial insemination in sheep. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27598v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27598v1

Abstract

It has been well proved that melatonin participates in the regulation of the seasonal reproduction of ewes. However, the effects of short term treatment of melatonin on ewe’s ovulation are still to be clarified. In this study, the effects of melatonin on the number of embryo s harvested from superovulation, and the pregnant rate in recipients after embryo transferred have been investigated. Hu sheep with synchronous estrus treatment were given melatonin subcutaneously injection (0, 5, and 10 mg/ewe, respectively). It was found that t he estrogen level in the group of 5 mg melatonin was significantly higher than that of other two groups a t the time of sperm insemination ( p < 0.05). The pregnant rate and number of lambs in the group of 5 mg melatonin treatment was also significantly higher than that of the rests of the groups ( P < 0.05). In another study, 31 Suffolk ewes as donors and 103 small-tailed han sheep ewes as recipients were used to produce pronuclear embryo and embryo transfer. Melatonin (5 mg) was given to the donors during estrus. The results showed that, the number of pronuclear embryos and the pregnancy rate were also significantly higher in melatonin group than that in the control group . In addition, 28 donors and 44 recipient ewes were used to produce morula/blastocyst and embryo transferring. Melatonin (5 mg) was given during estrus. The total number of embryos harvested ( 7.40±1.25/ewe vs. 3.96±0.73/ewe, P<0.05 ) and the pregnant rate (72.3±4.6% vs.54.7±4.0%, P<0.05) and number of lambs were also increased in melatonin group compared to the control group. Collectively, the results have suggested that melatonin treatment 36 hours after CIDR withdrawal could promote the number and quality of embryos in the in vivo condition and increased the pregnant rate and number of lambs.