Corpora lutea with a short life-span induced by rams in seasonally anovulatory ewes are prevented by progesterone delaying the preovulatory surge of LH.

Seasonally anovulatory Merino ewes isolated from rams were allocated to three treatments before the re-introduction of rams. Ten ewes received a single injection of progesterone (20 mg), 18 ewes received the injection of progesterone but had the ram-induced preovulatory surge of LH replaced by a series of injections of GnRH 24 h after the introduction of the rams, and 20 control ewes had no hormone treatment. Of the 48 ewes, 44 ovulated within 5 days of the introduction of rams and the treatments had no significant effect on the incidence of ovulation. The frequency of corpora lutea with a short life span (the interval between successive preovulatory surges of LH being 5.1 +/- 0.9 days) was 72% for control ewes and 58% for ewes treated with progesterone and GnRH, but such CL were prevented completely after the injection of progesterone alone (P less than 0.001). The injection of progesterone also delayed the preovulatory surge of LH (P less than 0.001). These results suggest that progesterone assures normality of corpora lutea by lengthening the period of gonadotrophin priming of follicles before ovulation.