ABSTRACT
The average number of offspring per pregnancy is about 8, and up to 40 embryos can be obtained per female after superovulation. The fact that rabbit is sexually mature after several months still increases the cost of the experiments. In the rabbit, ovulation does not occur spontaneously, it is provoked by mating. Superovulation enhances quite significantly the number of embryos and up to 40 embryos per female can be obtained in this routine. The identification of transgenes can be carried out from pieces of tail or ears. Transgenes are transmitted from rabbit founders to offspring usually with good yield. Some of the animals are obviously mosaic, as judged by transmission frequency of the transgenes. No systematic study seems to have been done with this species. ES cells from rabbit would be very useful for many purposes. Although several publications reported that ES cells from rabbit were obtained, it seems that the establishment of rabbit ES cells remains to be done.
