Assisted reproductive techniques for hybridization of camelids.

The camelid family comprises the Old World camelids (or dromedary and Bactrian camels) and the New World camelids (namely the llamas, alpacas, guanacos and vicunas). Although the species within each group can hybridize among themselves to produce fertile offspring, it is only recently that a hybrid between New and Old World camelids has been reported. To create this hybrid, semen was collected from male camels by artificial vagina (AV) and inseminated into female guanacos (n = 9) and llamas (n = 3) at the appropriate stage of their follicular wave cycle. Similarly, guanaco and llama semen was collected, also by AV, and inseminated into female camels (n = 42). Although several conceptions occurred, only one hybrid (camel sire x guanaco dam) continued to term and was born alive after 328 days of gestation, and another is pregnant at the time of writing (camel sire x llama dam). Further studies are presently being carried out using extraspecific embryo transfer to try and improve the success rate of live offspring being born. Female guanacos (n = 4) are treated with hormones to stimulate their ovaries to produce several follicles before being inseminated with camel semen. Of the 12 camel recipients that have to date received hybrid embryos (camel sire x guanaco dam), 10 conceived, but 9 of these subsequently aborted between 30 and 365 days and only one recipient was still pregnant at the time of writing.