Survival of rabbit eggs preserved in plastic straws in liquid nitrogen

Abstract

Since the first successful report on the deep-freeze preservation of mouse embryos by Whittingham (1971), the development of frozen embryos after transplantation has been reported for the cow (Wilmut & Rowson, 1973), rabbit (Whittingham & Adams, 1974), rat (Whittingham, 1975), and sheep (Willadsen, Polge, Rowson & Moor, 1976). For the rabbit, Bank & Maurer (1974) found that 7–15% of 8-cell eggs or morulae transplanted after freezing and thawing developed into fetuses, and Whittingham & Adams (1974) also obtained a 17% development of frozen 8-cell eggs to term. These results are considerably poorer than those obtained for the mouse (Whittingham, 1974).