Application of Ballooned Cervial Dilator for Bovine Embryo Collection

An attempt was made to develop a new type of uterine cervix dilator for safety and efficient embryo collection in cows.The characteristics of the designed dilator is that it was a plastic catheter with a tip having a silicon rubber balloon, of which pressure was controlled by putting air from a plastic syringe connected to the catheter.The ballooned dilator was applied to the cervical dilation of the cows, in combination with a rectal manipulation assisting its entry into the canal. The insertion of the dilater with repeated expansion of the balloon permitted the dilation of the tight cervical fold-neck as follows.(1) In all of 5 cows mainly consisted of multiparous ones, the cervical dilation by the ballooned was completed within 24 minutes, and no sign of bleeding due to the injury on cervical was noted.(2) In 8 multiparous cows, the cervical canal dilation by this apparatus was successfully achieved within 1.5 minutes, without exception. The subsequent embryo collection from these animals was also successful.(3) The successful dilation in the cervical canal was obtained by this dilator in 5 out of 8 cows of which cervical canals had extremely twisted or partially closed due to multitime treatments in previous embryo collections. The subsequent embryo collection succeeded in these 5 animals. These results indicate that this simple dilator is useful as a cervical dilator for embryo collection as well as for embryo tranfer in cows.