Collection of embryos from short-tailed fruit bats (Carollia perspicillata).

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Embryos from the short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) can be collected from females that are pregnant as a result of matings established in a laboratory colony or during the breeding season in the wild. The entire reproductive tract containing the single conceptus is dissected from the female, and the uterus is measured. If the uteri contain embryos that can be dissected out, measured, and staged, this information can be compared to published data for normal pregnancies. The results can then be used to predict when conceptuses at other stages of development might be collected. Such data, by themselves, do not establish whether those pregnancies may have previously included a period of delay at the primitive streak stage. As described in this protocol, the embryo is usually dissected from the reproductive tract free of decidual tissue and its extraembryonic membranes, including the yolk sac and amnion. Once isolated, the embryo can then be processed for subsequent analysis.