Studies on In Vitro Maturation of Canine Oocytes

Domestic dog has provided as a primary companion animal to human ‘man's best friend’ and also serve as guide for blind people as well as has growing role as an animal research model for human diseases investigation. There are many countries suffer from acute shortage of guide dog for blind. One of the most contributing features of the lack of guide dogs seems to be the castration of both female and males in advance of the beginning of training. That once the newly trained dogs were to distinguish themselves as superior guide dogs unfortunately they could never produce offspring which may be especially fit for such training. Moreover the removed reproductive organs are treated as waste materials. Ordinarily both of males and females used for breeding are not evaluated for their potential to serve as guide dogs. This situation urgently requires countermeasures to meet and sustain the supply of high quality guide dogs for blind people. These countermeasures should include a novel breeding system. The current study try to provide a new strategy for improvement of the assisted reproduction in canids including in vitro maturation of oocytes with particular emphasis.