shipping hints

[felger at CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU]

On Tue, 17 Jun 1997, Paul C Weaver wrote:

"> Patrick
> 
> I have found that when sending ova it is important that the ova get
> oxygen.  I have recieved ova in small tubes which had no ventilation at
> all.  All the ova would failed to hatch or only the ova at the ends of the
> tube would hatch.  Not a very productive way to send ova. "


My experience during almost twenty years of mailing livestock across the 
world is that these statements are in error.  I do not think oxygen 
availability is the limiting factor for eggs in tubes.  I have had 
mostly great success both sending and receiving ova in plastic tubes 
plugged with cotton in a standard business size envelope. However, in 
Arizona where our daytime temperatures may exceed 110 degrees F., I have 
had much more egg mortality.  I would have to assume that when mail 
leaves the post office before 8:00 AM and is not delivered til 4:00 PM on 
a summers' day, then heat must indeed be a culpable factor.  
Unbelievably, I have had some tropical ova spend an entire day in a black 
mailbox during June in plastic tubes (as mentioned above) and still they 
have hatched...and produced healthy larvae and adults.  How they are able 
to cope, I do not know. Temperatures inside the mailbox probably exceeded 
125 degrees F.

mfw