Horse breeders may choose foal gender in advance?
Beginning in 2010, horse breeders may be able to purchase pre-screened, sexed equine semen for artificial insemination. According to recent reports, a joint venture between Equine Reproduction Innovations (of Wellington, Colorado) and Sexing Technologies (of Navasota, Texas) will offer pre-sorted stallion semen services.
This may make it possible for equine breeders to choose the gender of their foals even before breeding their mares through artificial insemination.
Using microscopic genetic screening technologies to separate X-bearing chromosome (female) and Y-bearing chromosome (male) sperm cells, the process is expected to produce correct foal sexing results more than 90 percent of the time.
Equine breeders may submit frozen stallion semen for screening and banking. Similar sexing procedures are also performed for cattle breeding.
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