Equine Reproduction Colloquium

I recently went to the Equine Reproduction Colloquium.

Here is a link to their website... http://www.cfer.co.uk/

I went last year as well and I have enjoyed both years. It is run by Aberystwyth University and this year it was at Hereford Race Course. There is a wide range of people attending, this year there were students from both Aberystwyth and Hartpury, there are also scientists from the area, vets and people that run/ work on stud farms. It is a great way of bringing people in the industry to discuss new research that may not have made it back to the breeders, and areas that need to be looked into by the scientists.

Jenny Ousey first talked about the assessment of foetal health in the pregnant mare. This was talking about ways to assess how healthy the foetus is. Then Julia Kydd talked about the formation of the equine placenta and the immune response. This was interesting as it discussed the foetus in terms of a transplant into the placenta and why the mare's immune system doesn't reject this foreign material.There were then talks into potential research to support mare and stallion practises.

Along with the different speakers and buffet lunch we also had a discussion session in the afternoon where we got together in groups and could choose the topic we wanted to discuss. I was in the group for future reproductive technologies and we discussed a range of things from embryo transfer to creating an online data base for all studs to record information on, this would then be a great source of data for the scientists.

After this there was one more speaker called Emma Tomlinson who talked about potential research to support embryo transfer practice.

One thing that did come across are the communications problems with valuable information. Scientists often do not write in terms that a stud yard manager may understand. There are communication problems between vets and scientists as to which are the best methods to use and how to use them. There are also communication problems between stud farms of valuable information as they are businesses and may not want to share their tips to other stud yards which may be their competitors.

I really enjoyed going and it's great for us students to meet some of the high flyers in the reproductive industry! If any of your are involved in equine reproduction I would recommend looking into going next year!

Love Laura
xxxx