RESUMO
The in vitro fertilization technique offers the opportunity to study the karyotype of gametes and early embryos. Follicular buffalo oocytes were matured in TC-199 medium enriched with FCS, fertilized in vitro using thawed frozen buffalo semen and cultured at 38.5°C, 5% CO[2] and high humidity. Chromosome preparations were made from 232 buffalo embryos at 4 - to 8-cell stage after culturing for 48 hr in vitro. Only 74 embryos from 170 fixed embryos provided analyzable chromosome spreads. The percentage of embryos with chromosomal aberrations was 12.16%. The observed abnormal embryos were 5.41% haploid, 4.05% polyploid [2.70% triploid and 1.35% pentaploid] and 2.70 haploid/ diploid mosaicism. It is concluded that cytogenetic analysis of buffalo embryos is valuable for detection of chromosomal abnormalities which hinder the cleavage processes to reach to blastocyst stage