AR-News: (CA) BSE halts embryo transfer research

[Mary Finelli]

USE OF DAIRY EMBRYOS ON HOLD
The Western Producer, Ian Bell, January 19, 2004

Complete article:
http://www.producer.com/articles/20040115/livestock/20040115ls05.html


It may be years before people like Jack Reeb renew the search for an 
affordable way to use beef cows and embryo transfers as a way to provide 
more dairy heifers for Canadian and foreign markets.

Reeb heads Central Canadian Genetics Ltd., a Manitoba company that 
specializes in livestock reproduction and nutrition. A little more than a 
year ago, he was in Brandon outlining the possibility of transferring dairy 
embryos into beef cows, a measure that could potentially help satisfy what 
he saw as an increasing North American demand for dairy replacement heifers.

Reeb told beef producers the opportunities were worth examining, but he 
emphasized more work was needed to understand the risks and to lower the 
costs of embryo transfers.

However, in a recent interview, he said plans to research the idea are on 
hold, describing it as another casualty of the fallout from bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy. The discovery of BSE in an Alberta cow last May 
halted exports of Canadian cattle and a U.S. case worsened the problem.

Reeb said dairy replacement exports dropped to nil from 100,000 a year 
before the BSE discovery.

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