French straws in holding medium (HEPES-TALP containing
10% [vol/vol] fetal bovine serum and 50 mMdithiothreitol [as
an antioxidant]), and straws containing selected embryos
were then placed horizontally into a portable incubator
(Biotherm INC-12V; Cryologic, Victoria, Australia) at 39 C
and transported to the respective farm. At the farm, straws
containingembryoswere loaded into a transfer pipette (IMV
Technologies, L’Aigle, France) and randomly transferred to
recipients. Of the harvested embryos, nine were morula, 53
were blastocysts, and 127 were expanded blastocysts.