STORY LEAD:
ARS Hosts International Conference on Preserving Boar Semen
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Tara Weaver-Missick, (301) 504-1619, tweaver@asrr.arsusda.gov
August 6, 1999
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Scientists from around the world will meet next week to discuss critical
research findings and technological innovations in boar (male swine) semen
preservation at the Fourth International Conference on Boar Semen
Preservation, Aug. 8-11, in Beltsville, Md.
The Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific agency of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, is hosting the conference. ARS is also one of
four major sponsors of the event.
The conference was initiated in 1985 when Kjell Larsson of Sweden and animal
physiologist Lawrence A. Johnson, head of ARS' Germplasm and Gamete
Physiology Laboratory in Beltsville, organized the first meeting in Uppsala,
Sweden. It is generally held every five years. The purpose is to stimulate
thinking, research and applications of principles regarding semen
preservation and swine artificial insemination worldwide. Scientists,
practitioners, and technicians attend the conference to discuss topics
concerning swine reproduction.
The conference will include 25 oral presentations from leading scientists in
the field of swine reproduction. Topics covered include gamete interaction,
in vitro semen evaluation, freezing boar semen, and current status of
artificial insemination usage worldwide. The meeting also will offer more
than 50 poster presentations.
A highlight of the evening program will be a presentation by Professor
E.J.C. Polge, now retired from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Polge has been in the forefront of livestock semen and embryo preservation
research for the past 50 years and was the first to successfully freeze
bovine semen in 1949.
Johnson is chairman of the conference organizing committee. He and his
colleague, animal physiologist John R. Dobrinsky, will present research
developments in the "Emerging Technologies for the Next Millennium" session.
Johnson will present new developments in sex preselection for swine, while
Dobrinsky will present his recent work on a successful method to preserve
swine embryos.
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Scientific contact: Lawrence A. Johnson, ARS Germplasm and Gamete Physiology
Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-8545, fax (301) 504-5123,
LAJOHNSN@lpsi.barc.usda.gov.
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* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648.
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