Serum, which is routinely included in many embryo culture media, can decrease the viability of bovine and ovine embryos produced in cultures employing synthetic oviduct fluid (SOF; Kuran et al., 1999) and represents a possible route for transmission of disease. Alternative approaches include the use of chemically defined culture media but results from studies which avoid sera and its derivatives (e.g., albumin) are generally less favourable due to a lack of knowledge regarding the embryo's response to specific nutrients, most notably fatty acids. As a preliminary step towards investigating fatty acid influences on bovine embryo development in vitro, the present study examined the effect of adding palmitic acid (C16:0) to SOF plus bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the performance of this semi-defined culture medium and contrasted it with embryo production in SOF supplemented with serum.