Today's Foal Announcement Latest In Series Of Successes Tied To Research At Colorado State University
Thursday, August 13, 1998
FORT COLLINS--The first horse born to a mare artificially
inseminated with semen sorted to ensure the offspring was female
is the latest in a long series of genetic advances pioneered by
researchers at Colorado State University.
The birth of "Call Me Madam," a filly conceived after a mare
was surgically inseminated with a relatively small amount of
sexed sperm and born Aug. 6, was announced today by XY Inc., a
company devoted to the commercialization of sexing semen in
animals. The Colorado State University Research Foundation is a
part-owner of the local firm.
Research, teaching and service in reproductive biology and
genetic engineering is centered in the Animal Reproduction and
Biotechnology Laboratory (ARBL), part of the Physiology
Department at Colorado State's College of Veterinary Medicine and
Biomedical Sciences. Accomplishments include:
*The birth of the world's first genetically identical twin
foals produced by an embryo that was non-surgically removed,
split into two and implanted in two surrogate mothers. "Question"
and "Answer" were born 10 days apart in May 1984.
*"Firecracker," in 1996 the first "test-tube" horse to be
born in this country using a sperm injection procedure developed
by a team involving Ed Squires and George Seidel.
*An insert-artificial insemination technique that in 1995
produced the world's first calves of predetermined sex using
artificial insemination of sexed semen. Developed by researchers
led by Seidel in cooperation with the U.S. Agriculture Department
and others, the technique is 90 percent accurate.
*Continuing efforts to clone animals from adult cells.
Seidel, Squires and ARBL director Gordon Niswender are seeking
funding to apply the same techniques to cattle and horses that
produced "Dolly," the sheep cloned in Scotland, and recent
efforts that produced 50 cloned mice in Hawaii.
Starting in 1941, Colorado State began teaching about
artificial insemination of dairy cattle and, in 1948, established
an artificial insemination service available to Colorado dairy
farmers. Research got underway in 1953 on freezing and
preserving bovine semen, and a bull semen processing laboratory
set up the following year funded research into the reproductive
biology of a number of species of animals.
In 1972, an ongoing program on the reproductive physiology
of cattle and horses was expanded to include reproductive
endocrinology; a research and service program on embryo transfer
that began in 1973 was so successful that it ultimately shifted
non-surgical embryo recovery and transfer to private farms and
ranches. The Preserving Equine Genetics program in 1997 garnered
a $1 million gift from the Lucy G. Whittier Foundation to save
genetic material of important breeding horses.
Some dozen Colorado State faculty members plus postdoctoral
associates, graduate students and technicians work at the ARBL's
Foothills Campus location on embryo transfer, gamete physiology,
genetic engineering and reproductive endocrinology.
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