and this moment was designated Day 1 of pregnancy. On Day 4 of pregnancy (96–98 hours after plug identifica- tion), dams from all groups (CL, N 1⁄4 26; CN, N 1⁄4 31; EXN, N 1⁄4 22; EXF, N 1⁄4 32) were killed using cervical disloca- tion or decapitation and embryos were recovered by flushing the uterus and the oviduct using a flushing- holding medium [23] containing 1% bovine serum albu- min