Abstract: In order to improve in vivo embryo production efficiency and optimize the screening criteria for donor Holstein cows, this study analyzed the correlation between the peripheral blood AMH concentration with embryo production efficiency in Holstein young cows during the process of superovulation of donor cattle. In this experiment, 96 Holstein young cows were selected, after superovulation, peripheral blood was collected from caudal roots on the day of CIDR implantation, artificial insemination and embryo recovery to detect AMH concentration, and divided into 3 groups according to high (25% of the highest concentration distribution), medium (25%-75% of the middle concentration distribution) and low (25% of the lowest concentration distribution) AMH concentration. The difference in the average embryos number per donor, average usable embryos number per donor, average degenerated embryos number per donor and average unfertilized oocytes number per donor among 3 groups were compared and analyzed. The results showed that:1) The detection results of AMH concentration in peripheral blood showed that the concentration of AMH decreased from CIDR implantation to embryo recovery. 2) On the day of CIDR implantation, the average embryos number per donor in AMH high-concentration group (9.38±1.24) was significantly higher than that in AMH medium-concentration group(6.47±0.56, P<0.05), indicating that donor cattle with high AMH concentration on the day of CIDR implantation had better superovulation effect and more embryos recovered; However, the average unfertilized oocytes number per donor in AMH high-concentration group was significantly higher than that in other two groups (P<0.05); It means that some oocytes failed to be fertilized, which might be due to the fact that more follicles of cows in the high-concentration group dominated, and the prolonged ovulation cycle caused some oocytes to fail to complete normal fertilization. 3) The results of AMH data analysis on the day of artificial insemination and embryo recovery showed that there were no significant differences in various embryo production indicators among the 3 groups (P>0.05). 4) The effect of body weight of donor cattle on the in vivo embryo production efficiency was investigated, the results showed that the difference in embryo production efficiency among individuals with different body weight was not significant (P>0.05), the number of available embryos and the number of retrieved embryos of cows in moderate body condition group were higher than that in other two groups, especially higher than that in the over-weight group. Therefore, the concentration of AMH in peripheral blood on the day of CIDR implantation can be used as one of the screening criteria for donor cattle, and the donor heifer should own appropriate body condition score.

Key words: AMH, superovulation, embryo production, donor cattle selection