Summary

Cryopreservation of semen is only applicable for single-gene traits and does not allow for full reconstitution of the genetic material of the original line. In the last 15 year, advances in the manipulation of the early chick-embryo suggests that cryopreservation of blastodermal cells might offer a means to preserve the entire genome of endangered or rare-breed stock of poultry. Present investigation was a trial on cryopreservation of goose embryonic cells, which supports the planned Hungarian poultry gene bank’s establishment as well, since one of the main tasks of the Research Institute for Animal Breeding and Nutrition in Hugary is the ex situ and in situ conservation of the Hungarian poultry genetic materials. Blastodermal cells were collected from freshly laid unincubated fertile goose eggs. The cryopreservation of blastodermal cells was carried out in a programmable freezing machine (PLANER CRYO 10). The cooling protocol elaborated for chicken embryonic cells by Pokorny (2002) was adapted for goose. The concentration and viability of blastodermal cells were examined at each steps of freezing protocol. The best result was 30 % survival of cells after the freezing/thawing procedure. Present data can be compared only to the chicken derived results (40-60%), since there are no availabl