Sunday, October 17, 2010

For Steve Robinson--Sex Sorted Semen


What do we do with the excess male elephants born, is a very valid question. Until we come up with a viable solution, I suggest that we look into Sex Sorted Semen. I drove many miles yesterday to gaze upon this magnificent creature above, and attend a sorted semen clinic. It is a technology currently used by a number of domestic breeds, including the Longhorn. It is also used by the American Quater Horse, which I don't agree with, as they are not a meat breed, and it will take away the finess of being a great horse breeder. Just my opinion. During spermatogenesis, each sperm cell is either issued an X (female bearing) or a Y (male bearing) chromosome. Sexing Technologies in Texas owns the exclusive license to a patent capable of sorting these cells into straws for artificial insemination that will contain at least 90% male or female bearing sperm cells. ST currently has a bull stud in Texas and Wisconsin housing over 150 beef and dairy bulls as well as a large embro tranfer and invetro fertilization business with over 1000 donors and recipient females primarily for producing sexed embryos.

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2 comments:

Steve said...

Thanks Wade.

Do you know if the zoo world in the States is investigating this technology for elephants?

What is the Elephant Managers group's answer to placing the increasing number of males?

Cheers

Wade G. Burck said...

Steve,
I don't know if the zoo world has looked into it or not? It might be to obvious and not give the impression of great intelligence. Plus some "farm folks" came up with it, and that doesn't sit well with someone with a bunch of letters behind their name.
I don't know about the Elephant Manager's either. How about it Elephant Manager's? What are your suggestion's for the problem?
Wade