FOLLICULAR PUNCTURE
FOLLICULAR PUNCTURE
AS A WAY TO ELIMINATE TWIN PREGNANCIES AT THE TIME OF
INSEMINATION IN DAIRY COWS
Welcome
Hi, I’m Irina Garcia-Ispierto, professor at the University of Lleida. I would like to welcome you to this website, which will upload our group’s activity. We focus primarily on improving fertility in highly-intensified dairy farms with the research and development of new techniques. Furthermore, scientific outreach plays an important role, as we believe that it is essential for research to reach the specialised sector and also the general population.
On this web portal you will find the main research we do, as well as press appearances, specialized journals and others. In addition, you will find links so you can deepen your themes. I invite you to take a look!
Researchers
ina Garcia-Ispierto (IP)
Irina Garcia-Ispierto holds a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2008). Currently, she is a tenured professor at the Department of Animal Science of the University of Lleida (UdL) and principal investigator (PI) in the Bovine Reproduction Group working at the research centre Agrotecnio and the UdL. Her area of research is reproduction in dairy cattle specializing in twin pregnancies, oestrus synchronization methods, reproductive
ultrasonography, and fertility problems. Irina is also interested in infection problems such as those caused by Coxiella burnetti or the parasite Neospora caninum.
To date, Irina has had more than 100 articles published in indexed journals and participated in 100 scientific meeting, both national and international. She has also participated in symposiums organized by companies such as Ecuphar and Ceva and has written numerous articles for a more popular readership.
Irina is the PI of numerous projects with pharmaceutical companies and dairy farms in the Segrià area, and a SGR group of the Government of Catalonia. She is presently the Editor of
the Animal Reproduction Section of the journal Animals, and a reviewer for journals such as Reproduction in Domestic Animals, Theriogenology and Journal of Dairy Science.
What do we do?
For this technique, on the day of AI the smaller follicle is punctured without suction
using a rigid cannula designed for follicular cyst puncture (Minitub Ibèrica S.L., la Selva de Camp, Tarragona, Spain).
It is equally effective in animals both with bilateral and unilateral follicles. Although fertility is statistically similar to that of control cows (not undergoing follicular puncture but with two follicles present at AI), ovulation failure increases significantly.
Currently, it is proposed that animals to be subjected to this technique be treated with a potent ovulation inducer such as hCG. More work is needed to determine whether, in addition, the simplified technique with hCG treatment not only increases fertility over that produced in control animals, but also reduces pregnancy losses due to the additional CL and eliminates twin pregnancies. To facilitate the function of this induced additional CL, a dephereline (GnRH analogue) dose is administered 7 days after puncture.
FOLLICULAR PUNCTURE CAN BE DONE IN THE REPRODUCTIVE VISIT