Technical note: Vitrification of goat embryos by the open pulled-straw method.

The suitability of the open pulled-straw (OPS) method for vitrifying bovine embryos was tested for goat embryos. Of 14 does receiving OPS-vitrified embryos, all became pregnant and 13 (93%) kidded. The corresponding values for an established conventional freezing program were 58% pregnant and 50% (6/12) kidding. Overall embryo survival amounted to 64% (18/ 28) for OPS-vitrified and 42% (10/24) for conventionally frozen embryos. All differences were statistically significant. It is concluded that OPS vitrification is a suitable method for cryopreserving caprine d-7 blastocysts.