Studying at
Veterinary Faculty of Autonomous University of Barcelona I’ve met several professors
doing impressing research and teaching students in a completely different and effective
way. What makes it so different than my Warsaw faculty is that a hard work and interest
of a student is always appreciated and awarded. Not only I was let to learn
very important and useful things but I was able to join some research
activities at university. Impressed by teaching abilities and great knowledge
of Rafael Ruiz de Gopegui I was let to work with him over 2 months doing clinics and research.
This resulted in 2 publications of clinical cases that are submitted and will
be published soon. I am going to present them together with detail relation of
my externship later on.
Now I would
like to focus on another great event of my career that I faced. Jordi Miro Roig
is one of the best world specialist in equine reproduction. Thanks to his patience,
great attitude and teaching skills he let me participate in a great project in
reproduction department of UAB. The main aim is to save from extinction a
specie of the Catalonian Donkey.
Constantly
I was facing the main problem, lack of money. In June I’ve decided to
participate in a polish contest for young people ( Stypendium z Wyboru ) where
presenting their projects they can get up to 1000 euro scholarship. Among over
600 different project, mine was one of the winners thanks to a lot of people
involved in internet voting and judges that found my project one of the most
interesting. Soon I could start my work
and learn really a lot!
Catalonian
Donkey is a symbol of Cataluña, very
important and big region of Spain. These animals are much different than other
donkeys’ breed, for example their unique character allow them to be kept as
pets, they are also very strong what that was the reason in the past to cross them
with other breeds making them capable to work harder. For several reasons got into a danger of extinction.
Thanks to the great job of Jordi Miro Roig the number of animals is increasing
all the time.
Let me tell
you a couple of words about my job. Every morning together with professor we went
to the farm located at the campus of uni. There were jennies (donkey females)
separated from males (jackass). There
were 2 females in age of 3 to get pregnant. One 7-year-old with a lactating
baby, another 7-months pregnant and another 4-months pregnant. There were also
3 males, one was an effect of insemination with frozen semen done for the first
time in the world!
So our job
was to follow the estrous cycle, ovarian activity of those that must get
pregnant, inseminate them or bring the male if needed when they are in estrous,
control the gestations of the pregnant ones and analyze semen of the males.
 |
| The farm where they live |
 |
| This is how every morning they came to say "hello" :) |
 |
| Here with 6-month-old male |
 |
| Here my friend Angela and her first day at work |
 |
| mother with baby |
Thanks to
Jordi Miro Roig’s research now we know that sexual maturity of jennies appear
in about 3 years old, the present continuous cyclic activity but on spring and
autumn the maximum receptivity. We also know that the estrous cycle lasts in
general 24,9 days, when estrous lasts about about 5.6 days. Ultrasound
evaluation of the size of pre-ovulatory follicles helps to predict an
ovulation, it is normally produced when follicles are about 44,9 mm. During trans
rectal ultrasound examination we always examine also follicles’ texture, tone
of uterus, corpus luteum’s activity by Doppler colour and general behavior of a
female. What is curious is that females present a high percentage of multiple
ovulations, one of our jennies had a triple one!
 |
| Here Jordi Miro is giving prostaglandine shot so luteolysis can be induced |
 |
| We always took them together for eco, they seemed to behave much better when kept in two |
 |
| Here Jordi Miro explaining to the vet students the physiology of reproduction of donkeys |
 |
| I was even let to palpate some jennies, this one was about to ovulate |
Jordi Miro
Roig is one of the pioneers in the world when performing echography of the
gestation. I was able to see all the structures of 4-month-old fetus, including
skeleton, viscera, recognizing a sex and even evaluating a fetus’ heart
activity (everything done trans rectal-impressing!) In Catalonian Donkeys it is
possible that double gestation occurs and they can deliver without any
complication (we remember that in mare a double gestation always end up with
abortion). The gestation of jennies
lasts 12 months and 24 days.
 |
| Here taking some classes about managing |
When
jennies entered in estrous we could make them pregnant in different ways. We
could bring her to the male and let them copulate, we could bring her and
collect a semen from the jackass and inseminate her in different ways- with
fresh semen, with refrigerated semen or with frozen. Copulation normally gave
excellent results (if jenny was in estrous), as well as with fresh or refrigerated
semen. The problem occurred when it came to inseminate with frozen semen.
Females presented a strong inflammation in the uterus so neutrophils phagocytized
spermatozoa impeding the fecundation.
This was one of the aims of Jordi Miro to decrease this inflammatory response.
Several research work was done and obtained results were satisfying.
Once we synchronized two jennies and we detected that one of them is possibly in heat we brought her to the male so they could copulate. I will present some pictures and videos.
 |
| Here typical signs of a heat, jenny is opening her mouth, ears are extended caudally, |
Unfortunately a week later the gestation was not detected as she had hymen preserved. After destroying it she was inseminated and week later diagnosed to be pregnant :)
Another method is to bring a female in heat and collect the semen to inseminate her inmediately.
 |
| It's an artificial vagina, here Jordi is preparing it to be used i.e heating up |
 |
| Semen collection |
 |
| Preparing the semen doses to be given |
 |
| Me,injecting semen into uterus |
 |
| This 7-year-old male is an effect of an artificial insemination with frozen semen performed first time in the world by Jordi Miro. |
 |
| here to get his "nails" done:) |
 |
| In lab heating the frozen semen for analysis |
 |
| Getting ready for analysing the semen samples that are being heated |
 |
| Spermatozoas' mobility |
 |
| Taking frozen semen samples |
Thank you again everybody who supported me all this time, voted and helped to encourage more people. I want you all to know that I am sooo satisfied with my job and I am looking forward to developing more skills and knowledge in future.
Special thanks to Jordi Miro Roig, one of the most impressive professors I ever met. I was given a great opportunity to work with him and see things I could never be able to experience.
Muchas gracias a todos mis compañeros de UAB cuales participaban con migo en algunas prácticas en las granjas con burros. Gracias a mis queridas amigas que me daban alojamiento durante este periodo y a toda la gente maravillosa de Barcelona que me soportaba y votaba en el concurso, fue un placer trabajar y estudiar en Cataluña!
Dziękuję wszystkim, każdemu z osobna za zaangażowanie w pomoc przy powstaniu projektu, za wszystkich, którzy trzymali kciuki i pomagali na wszystkie sposoby. Reprezentowałam nasz kraj najlepiej jak potrafiłam ale co najważniejsze to nauczyłam się rzeczy jakich w Polsce nie miałabym okazji doświadczyć, raz jeszcze dziękuję!
Dziękuję również wszystkim organizatorom konkursu Stypendium z Wyboru. Zachęcam do korzystania ze zdjęć i filmików przy promowaniu kolejnej edycji.
