An-Najah Staff

This study was carried out to determine the growth, survival rate and some body measurements until weaning of lambs produced by the in vitro production (IVP) method in comparison with those of lambs produced by artificial insemination. The lambs in the experimental group were produced by the transfer of IVP embryos developed to the blastocyst stage after the in vitro maturation and fertilisation of oocytes obtained from the ovaries of slaughtered ewes. The results of this study showed that the lambs produced by the IVP technique had a higher growth rate until weaning than did the lambs in the control group (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of survival rate and body measurements. It was concluded that the IVP technique, which provides significant improvements in population genetics, could be successfully applied in sheep breeding and could be of help in the improvement of the meat produced from lambs.