This is the simplest among the various methods, and therefore ethanol treatment was used to activate minke whale oocytes in the present study.
As mentioned above, it was difficult to collect many minke whale oocytes, and viability after cryopreservation was very poor.
The minke whale oocytes were aspirated from follicles (2-15 mm in diameter) using a 10 ml syringe fitted with an 18 gauge needle.
Digestion of herring by indigenous bacteria in the minke whale forestomach.
Also, cyropreserved minke whale oocytes might be more sensitive than fresh oocytes to ethanol treatment.
In this study, the lower survivability of frozen-thawed minke whale oocytes could be due to the loss of direct communication with cumulus cells.
However, because the mechanism and precise factors are still unclear, it is not known whether minke whale oocytes should be activated or not.
For the present study, minke whale oocytes were brought to the laboratory after freezing and kept in liquid nitrogen.
