IPFS News Link • Biology, Botany and Zoology
After Embryo is Washed of Disease, Healthy Purebred Baby Buffalo Born in the Bronx
• http://www.popsci.com, By Rebecca BoyleIn this new case, researchers were able to take out a purebred developing embryo, wash it clean of disease and implant it into a surrogate commercial buffalo. Unlike the Yellowstone cows, this cow can go wherever veterinarians want to take it. In this case, it was shipped off to the Bronx.
Last fall, Colorado State University reproductive physiologist Dr. Jennifer Barfield and her team took a purebred embryo from a Yellowstone bison cow that lives at an animal health research center in Fort Collins, Colo. (Full disclosure: Your correspondent is an alumna of Colorado State.) Barfield was able to “wash” it so it could not spread diseases like brucellosis, which causes bison to spontaneously miscarry their young. It’s not clear exactly how they washed it (we are awaiting further detail).