Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are delighted to welcome you to the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Embryo Technology (SBTE), which will be held from August 15 to 18, 2019, in the Comandatuba Island, Bahia, Brazil.

This special issue of Animal Reproduction contains the full papers from invited speakers of both the SBTE and the Association of Embryo Technology in Europe (AETE) annual meetings. We express our gratitude to the editorial board and staff of the Animal Reproduction Journal for their support and collaboration in organizing and publishing the joint proceedings of the annual meetings of the SBTE and AETE.

For SBTE 2019, we have prepared a special meeting with two complementary programs: on August 16, a technology-oriented program will cover topics of major interest to professionals working in the field, and on August 17, a science-oriented program will cover fundamental aspects on reproductive biology, oocyte/embryo development and animal fertility. We thank all the speakers for their commitment and efforts in preparing the review articles, their kind willingness to comply with our deadlines, and for their oral presentations during the SBTE meeting.

The SBTE 2019 program will start on the afternoon of August 15, with four workshops that were planned and developed to serve the diverse interests of all SBTE members. Participants will have the opportunity to attend the workshop of their interest where renowned professionals and scientists will be sharing their experiences and research findings. We are grateful to the workshop presenters and coordinators for their enormous contributions, especially their dedication to the planning and developing of each topic.

The SBTE program will continue during the opening ceremony on August 15 when Dr. Pascale ChavattePalmer, President of the International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS), will present an update on worldwide embryo production.

We would like to express our gratitude to the coordinators of the abstract sessions, to the reviewers of abstracts and manuscripts, and to colleagues who evaluated the abstracts for the competitions and awards. This year, more than 170 abstracts were received and carefully evaluated. Thank you all for your time and effort dedicated to the review process.

We would like to highlight the tremendous work, dedication and contributions of all members of the SBTE Board in making this meeting possible.

Finally, we thank all the SBTE members and participants for their attendance at the SBTE 2019 annual meeting.

Bernardo Garziera Gasperin
Luiz Francisco Machado Pfeifer
Vilceu Bordignon
Co-Chairs of the SBTE Scientific Committee (2018-2019)