Allen on offensive again in calls for AI.Byline: Michael Clower PROFESSOR Twink Allen has stepped up his campaign for the abolition of the rule banning artificial insemination artificial insemination, technique involving the artificial injection of sperm-containing semen from a male into a female to cause pregnancy. Artificial insemination is often used in animals to multiply the possible offspring of a prized animal and for the breeding by hitting out at the big stallion owners. The former director of the TBA Equine Fertility Unit in Newmarket claims that they are deliberately standing in the way of what he regards as progress. He said: "The stallion owners are frightened of change and a few financially powerful ones simply refuse to discuss AI - and it's the numerically larger but financially smaller mare owners who suffer. "A handful of wealthy stallion owners are afraid of it and frightened by a change in the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. . In their minds, they see their stud farms would diminish or disappear." Allen was speaking on Thursday at the International Breeders' Seminar, organised by the Cape Breeders Club, at Somerset West near Cape Town in South Africa. He called the rule "antiquated" and added: "We have gone on too long with this attitude of 'we are not going to talk about it, go away '. "We must discuss it. AI reduces the risk of venereal disease venereal disease (vənēr`ēəl): see sexually transmitted disease. , mating injuries and uterine infections. It also cuts down on the amount of labour required. "People say that it will lead to the most popular stallions inseminating huge numbers of mares, but that's not going to happen. "In the American Standardbred world, where they do use AI, the numbers of mares per stallion have actually come down because breeders don't want to flood the market with too many yearlings by the same sire. The same would happen in the thoroughbred world." Allen intends spreading his message around the globe and in January he will address a large group of American breeders in Kentucky. He is also in touch with Bruce McHugh, the former Sydney Turf Club The Sydney Turf Club (STC) was founded in 1943 and is the youngest of Australia's Principal Race Clubs. It was formed following an Act passed by the New South Wales parliament called the Sydney Turf Club Act. chairman who is taking the Australian Stud Book to court. McHugh maintains that the anti-AI rule is a restraint of trade restraint of trade Preventing of free competition in business by some action or condition such as price-fixing or the creation of a monopoly. The U.S. has a long-standing policy of maintaining competition among business enterprises through antitrust laws, the best-known of and, therefore, illegal. "It is now high time that the existing ban on the use of AI and ET [embryo transfer] in thoroughbred breeding be reviewed in light of the obvious potential health, welfare and economic benefits," said Allen. |
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