Explain the strategy used for herd improvement in cattle.
Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer Technology (MOET) is one such programme for herd improvement.
(i) In this method, a cow is administered hormones, with FSH-like activity, to induce follicular maturation and super ovulation – instead of one egg, which they normally yield per cycle, they produce 6-8 eggs.
(ii) The animal is either mated with an elite bull or artificially inseminated.
(iii) The fertilised eggs at 8–32 cells stages, are recovered non-surgically and transferred to surrogate mothers.
(iv) The genetic mother is available for another round of super ovulation.