Figure 7.
Embryonic developmental stage at collection. Developmental stages of embryo recovery 6 days after heterologous seminal plasma (SP; black bars; N = 16 sows) or BTS (Control; gray bars; N = 18 sows) infusions prior to insemination. Thirty minutes before each postcervical insemination (1.5 × 109 sperm/dose in 40 mL of BTS diluent), sows were infused with 40 mL of heterologous SP or BTS (control). At day 6 after the first insemination, the sows were subjected to laparotomy to collect the embryos and to evaluate their quality and developmental stage. A total of 362 and 379 viable embryos were collected in sows from the SP and BTS groups, respectively. Numbers in parentheses are the number of embryos for each stage. a,bDifferent letters within each embryonic developmental stage represent significant differences (P < 0.05; Fisher's exact test).