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Animal Studies students visit specialist equine centre

Published
Wednesday 7 Dec 2022

A group of BSc and MSc Animal Science learners visited Stallion AI Services last week.

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Stallion AI Services is a global centre of excellence for equine semen collection, processing, storage and distribution. They are also partnered with Gemini Genetics which is at the forefront of domestic pet reproductive technologies and Nature’s Safe which was established to preserve tissues from endangered species for use in their conservation.

The Myerscough learners were able to watch a full demonstration of semen collection from a stallion and they subsequently worked with the lab team to analyse the quality of the semen. They also had informative lectures on the advances in reproductive and cryopreservation technologies.

Luke Ashcroft is in the final year of his BSc (Hons) degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, and said: “The trip to Stallion AI services was a great opportunity for me as a student who has done a breeding and genetics module in the previous year of my course.

‘’It brought all the knowledge we had learned and put it into practice, really showing how great of an industry genetics is and how far it can go.

‘’The staff were passionate and showed how much they wanted to pass on their knowledge of the industry and the hands-on approach made the experience even better, getting to set up slides with samples and apply a stain solution so that we could look at the samples under the microscope.

‘’It was also amazing to learn of their conservation section Nature’s Safe, which they have created using their experience and knowledge with horse breeding. A great trip and an amazing experience.”