Of 226 donor cattle treated with PMSG to induce superovulation, 76.5% responded with 3 or more ovulations. Flushing at surgery or slaughter 10-16 days after oestrus recovered eggs and embryos that represented 49.3% of the number of ovulations. Of those recovered, 73.3% were embryos, an average yield of 4.0 embryos/treated cow or 4.8 embryo/flushed cow. The location of eggs and embryos was determined in 65 of the donors. Embryos and unfertilized eggs (6.1% of those recovered) were occasionally found in the oviducts. Empty zonae pellucidae were also found in the uterus on all days. The lengths, or diameters, of embryos were extremely variable within days and within donors, but mean values indicated logarithmic growth between Days 10 and 16. Eighty-four synchronous (+/- 1 day) recipients received single embryos, and 51 recipients twin embryos, by surgical transfer. Pregnancies were obtained in recipients up to Day 16 but not on Day 17, indicating the stage by which an embryo must be present to prevent luteolysis. The overall pregnancy rate at Day 42 was 50.4% and further 18.1% of the recipients exhibited extended oestrous cycles. Of 35 recipients that were allowed to go to term, 12 lost their pregnancies, most often between Days 42 and 63.

One hundred and fifty-nine embryos were analysed in conjunction with embryo transfer studies. Chromosome preparations were made from small biopsy fragments of trophoblast, from large portions of trophoblast and the inner cell mass, or from the entire embryo. Results obtained from fragments were similar to those obtained from large portions of trophoblast and inner cell mass. No structural chromosomal abnormalities were observed. Single triploid, diploid-triploid and diploid-hexaploid and 66 diploid-tetraploid embryos were found. The 41.5% incidence of diploid-tetraploid embryos was relatively high, and appeared to be associated with a donor factor. The transfer of 49 biopsied and analysed embryos to recipients resulted in 15 pregnancies, seven with diploid-tetraploid embryos having up to 25% of polyploid cells. The diploid-triploid and diploid-hexaploid embryos were among the transfers that did not result in pregnancy. The low incidence of embryos with chromosomal abnormalities, excluding the diploid-tetraploid embryos, may have been due to the embryos being analysed at 12 to 18 days of age rather than at an earlier age before death or degeneration could have occurred.

Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis isolated from a case of human vaginosis was inoculated into the uterus of a C. fetus-negative heifer. Isolates obtained weekly from the vaginal mucus exhibited variations in highmolecular-mass-protein profiles from that of the original inoculum, which had a dominant 110-kDa S-layer protein. Immunoblots of the weekly isolates with monoclonal antibody probes against the 110-kDa S-layer protein and other C. fetus S-layer proteins demonstrated antigenic shifts. Genomic digests of the isolates probed with a 75-mer oligonucleotide of the conserved sapA region also indicated that antigenic variation of the S-layer is accompanied by DNA rearrangement.

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