Million Dollar Gift Will Speed Equine Reproductive Research At Colorado State University
Tuesday, October 14, 1997
FORT COLLINS--A $1 million gift from the Lucy G. Whittier
Foundation of California has been designated to help Colorado
State University researchers develop techniques to preserve the
genetic material of important breeding horses.
The Whittier Foundation gift will help support the
Preserving Equine Genetics program's research, including the
development and perfection of techniques for freezing equine eggs
and embryos, fertilizing eggs by sperm injection, transferring
eggs, collecting and maturing of eggs, and selecting sex of
embryos. For the horse industry, development of these techniques
is critical to moving genetic material throughout the world more
successfully, extending the reproductive lives of important
breeding horses, and making possible the indefinite preservation
of eggs, embryo and sperm.
The gift also will help the Preserving Equine Genetics
program bring visiting scientists from around the world to
Colorado State.
The Preserving Equine Genetics program has grown out of
Colorado State's nationally recognized veterinary medicine
program. With the largest staff of equine reproductive scientists
in the world, Colorado State has a long history of developing
assisted reproductive techniques. Techniques developed at
Colorado State include collection of semen, shipping of cooled
semen and embryos, artificial insemination and the development of
the world's first test tube horse. The program's practice of
making research immediately available to the horse industry has
enabled these techniques to be quickly accepted and commonly used
by modern breeders.
Private sources of funding are vital to the Preserving
Equine Genetics program, which receives virtually no federal or
state aid.
"Support from horse enthusiasts remains the driving force
behind our research. Our donors make progress and breakthroughs
possible," said Ed Squires, scientist at Colorado State who
developed and directs the Preserving Equine Genetics program.
For more information about the program, call Squires at
(970) 491-8409.
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