Company Says Sex Selection for Cattle Should Arrive Soon
XY Inc., a Colorado-based biotech company, has developed a technology that allows for sex selection of non-human mammals, including cows, and is in the process of making the technology commercially available.
XY Inc. signed a deal with Canada’s L’Alliance Boviteq that will see Boviteq set up a Canadian laboratory to commercialize sex-selected sperm and embryos from cattle.
Once available commercially, the technique would be of great use to dairy farms who want to increase the odds that a cows will give birth to heifer calves which can be used in milk production.
XY Inc.’s process is 90 percent accurate, but is costly because of the time it takes to sort sperm to get the correct sex. The research laboratory that Boviteq will develop will focus on speeding up the separation time so that the technique is commercially viable.
Source:
Sex selection on horizon for cattle. Capital Press, Chip Power, April 2005.
Tags: Cows