In Vitro Fertilization of Porcine Oocytes and Polyspermy

The methods and techniques used for porcine oocyte in vitro fertilization (IVF) are discussed. There are several methods of IVF used for porcine or other mammalian oocyte fertilization, such as conventional IVF in drops, sub-zonal injection (SUZI), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and straw IVF. There is a greater incidence of polyspermy in porcine oocytes compared to that in other mammalian oocytes. It was verified that a lot of factors affect the incidence of porcine oocyte polyspermy, including immature or aged oocytes, zona abnormality, the number of capacitated sperm at the site of fertilization, oviduct secretions, protein supplementation, pH, concentration of NaHCO-3 in the fertilization medium and the temperature of the oocyte-sperm co-culture and its species-specificity.