November 4 to 6, 2022

in cooperation with Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire Equin de Livet

This course provides up to 21 advanced practitioners with state-of-the-art lectures on equine Embryo Transfer (ET), Ovum Pick-Up (OPU) and Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). There will be unique opportunities to improve hands-on clinical skills in practical procedures. The instructors will be Etta Bradecamp, Anthony Claes, Peter Daels and Jannie Spanner. This course has been credited 20 hours of Continuous professional education by ATF (German Academy for Continuous Veterinary Education).

Program

Friday, November 4, Equine Clinic

10.00 to 13:00 – lectures

  • Introduction to equine embryo transfer: Place/role of ET in your practice; goals and results; equipment and investments; overview of the evolution of ET in Europe.
  • Embryo collection: Different techniques; timing of flushing according to different situations; material and instruments needed; success rates; influence of fresh/frozen semen on the timing and size of the embryo; recipient synchrony; influence of the age of mare and time of the year, tips and tricks in the collection and flushing of the donor mare.
  • Embryo manipulation: Searching, evaluating, manipulating, washing, preparing the embryo for immediate transfer; instrumentation and material needed for embryo manipulation and short-term conservation.
  • Storing and shipping embryos: Cooled storage devices; embryo holding medium; temperature and storage duration; results; import/export regulations.
  • Freezing and cryopreserving embryos: Why is it so difficult? Which embryos are best for freezing? Equine embryo freezing kits; is embryo collapse a good technique?
  • Thawing ICSI embryos: both the in vivo embryos and the ICSI slow frozen and vitrified.

13:00 – Lunch

14:00 to 17:45 – demos and wet labs

  • Transfer of embryos: Techniques and instrumentation; materials to use in Europe for ET.
  • OPU demonstration
  • Embryo collection on live mare demonstration

18:00 – End

18:15  – Pétanque tournament with cheese, poiré, cidré, calvados and more

Saturday, November 5, Equine Clinic

9:00 to 12:45 – lectures

  • Ovum Pick-up: Why choose it? the technique; required equipment; investments; pre-ovulatory follicle vs all follicles; oocyte recovery rates; collecting ovaries/oocytes post-mortem; shipping ovaries; costs associated with the procedure, comparison with conventional ET
  • Searching and handling oocytes
  • ICSI: The technique; expectations; requirements; factors influencing the success rate (donor mare, stallion fertility
  • Selecting the donor mares for ICSI: Which mares are good candidates to recommend OPU/ICSI?
  • Systematic approach to mare infertility by means of assisted reproduction technologies; transferring ICSI embryos in your practice

12:45 – Lunch

13:45 to 18:30 – Demos and wet labs

Participants will be divided in 3 groups to run the following wet labs of 1 h duration each

  • Wet lab A: Performing OPU
  • Wet lab B: Oocyte search and packaging for shipment
  • Wet lab C: Review of materials for classic ET with Q&A

18:00 – End

18:30 – Dinner in Livarot

Sunday, November 6, Equine Clinic

8:30 to 12:00 – wet labs and demonstrations

Participants will be divided in 3 groups to run the following wet labs of 1 h duration each

8:30:

  • Wet lab D: Thawing and transferring ICSI embryos & freezing in vivo embryos
  • Wet lab E: Transfer of embryo in a live mare (manual vs Wilsher)
  • Wet lab F: How to set up and problem shoot OPU set up.

12:00 – Lunch

13:00 to 16:30 – debates on

  • Sanitary requirements for shipment of oocytes and embryos across borders and for semen to be used for ICSI
  • Price setting of OPU services
  • Integrating ART in your practice: Is there a place for OPU in your practice?
  • Expectations and results: What are reasonable expectations with classic ET, OPU, ICSI and transfer of in vivo and in vitro embryos?
  • ICSI: What does it take to set up an ICSI lab? Facilities, instrumentation, quality control.

16:30 – End

Etta Bradecamp https://www.roodandriddle.com/staff/member/8

Etta is a new member in the Equine Repro Days team. Since 2011, Etta is a member of the Reproductive Specialties team at Rood and Riddle and a board-certified Theriogenologist (Reproduction) at the American College of Theriogenology (ACT). Previously, Etta worked at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine and Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital in Australia. Etta has extensive experience in equine reproduction with a special interest in embryo transfer and stallion infertility. Etta has lectured and taught wet labs to veterinarians at numerous meetings. We are very pleased to have her expertise available for this course.

Anthony Claes https://www.uu.nl/staff/ANJClaes/Publications

Anthony has been the main clinician in all matters related to OPU and ET at the Equine Fertility Unit at the University of Utrecht. He brings a unique clinical experience and enormous knowledge on the matter to this course. The equine reproduction clinic at the Utrecht University is one of the leaders in OPU in Europe and, together with Avantea, likely doing the largest number of OPU sessions/yr and transfers of frozen/thawed ICSI embryos in Europe. Anthony has participated in all the previous courses on ET and OPU organized by Arbeitsgruppe Pferd and is an enthusiastic and generous teacher.

Jannie Spanner https://www.vetembryo.com/

Jannie and her colleague, Emma Lorenzen, are the founders of VetEmbryo in Denmark. VetEmbryo was created in 2019 and now offers a full ART service including OPU, ICSI, freezing IVP embryos and embryo transfer. Jannie is primarily specialized in all procedures concerning OPU and transfer of ICSI embryos and has extensive experience in donor and recipient mare management, and all aspects of embryo transfer. Jannie is a new member to our teaching team but has previous teaching and training experience at other courses in past years. She is an enthusiastic and very driven teacher that will bring a wealth of information to this course.

Peter Daels (Univ Gent, Belgium).

Peter is the oldest member of the group. Peter spent 15 years specializing and teaching equine reproduction at University of California and Cornell University. Peter was involved in the creation of EmbryoTechnic in France and the ET division at Keros in Belgium. Currently, he teaches reproduction at the University of Gent, Belgium, and runs an extensive ET service for fresh and ICSI-derived embryos. Peter has been involved in many international courses on equine ET and has been teaching in all previous OPU/ICSI courses organized by Arbeitsgruppe Pferd.

Dates and location

November 4 to 6

Centre Hospitalier Vétérinaire Equin de Livet,
Cour Samson, 14140 St Michel de Livet, France;
Phone +33 (0) 231630105; https://chve-livet.com/

Accommodation

Lisieux (20 km from the clinic, about 25 minutes by car)

Here I have accommodated our speakers and me in the Mercure Lisieux www.mercure-lisieux.com

Other hotels thru https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g187186-Ville_de_Lisieux_Lisieux_Calvados_Basse_Normandie_Normandy-Hotels.html

There are chambres d´hotes close to the clinic. The clinic recommends:

Chambres d’Hotes du Haras de la Cour Fleury: 14140 Saint Michel de Livet; +33 771176448; courfleury@orange.fr; www.harasdelacourfleury.fr

Domaine de la Mésange: 14140 Le Mesnil Durand; +33 231635191; www.chambres-lamesange.fr

Relais de la Roquine: 14140 Val de Vie; +33 630399514; +33 685558024; https://www.calvados-tourisme.com/offre/le-relais-de-roquine/

La Bihoree: 14100 Saint Jean de Livet; +33 781559044; https://www.calvados-tourisme.com/offre/le-relais-de-roquine/

Further information

ARBEITSGRUPPE PFERD – TASK FORCE HORSE Arno Lindner Heinrich-Roettgen-Str. 20, D-52428 Juelich, Germany Phone +49 (0) 2461 340-430 · Fax -484 contact@agpferd.de · wwww.agpferd.com

  • More equine professionals’ education: Please check under events in agpferd.com

Course price is reduced by 5% for FFP members (www.ffp-ev.de) and two or more persons from the same practice / clinic registering together. Early registration date is 10.09.2022 !!

* Includes coffee breaks and lunches
# Includes dinner and drinks

You will receive a confirmation of your registration within 24 hours, otherwise please send an email to arnolindner(at)t-online.de to be attended properly.