Chronic elevation of uterine temperature has long been known to increase embryo mortality in dairy cattle. Short-term elevation in temperature of mouse embryos to 43 degrees C (acute) has been shown to induce intracellular production of heat-shock proteins. In this study, in vitro development of bovine embryos was assessed during short-term (60 h) coculture with oviduct epithelial cells at 38.6 degrees C (T1), 40 degrees C (T2), 38.6 degrees C after a prior pulse treatment (20 min) at 43 degrees C with 5% CO2 (T3), or 38.6 degrees C after a prior pulse treatment (20 min) at 43 degrees C with 100% CO2 (T4). During incubation, embryos cocultured at 40 degrees C had a greater (P < .05) mean embryo development score at 36 h than embryos cocultured at 38.6 degrees C. At 60 h of incubation, embryo development scores were greater (P < .05) for embryos cultured at 38.6 degrees C than for those cocultured at 40 degrees C. The number of embryos hatched at 60 h was similar after coculture at 38.6 degrees C (T1) or a prior pulse treatment with 5% CO2 and 43 degrees C (T3), but the embryo development score at 60 h was greater (P < .05) for the pulse-treated embryos. Embryos in T4 had greater (P < .05) embryo development scores than did T1 embryos from 36 through 60 h. Pulse treatment (T4) resulted in a greater (P < .05) number of hatched embryos at 60 h than T1, T2, and T3. These results indicate a detrimental effect of a chronic elevation in temperature that was evident shortly after embryo hatching.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)