Animal Husbandry Breeding
The Problems
Sex Selection
There are approximately 94 million cows in the
United States, of which 43.1 million are breeding cows. Ninety-five
percent of these cows are artificially inseminated for reproduction.
The best success rate of current procedures is approximately 50%
- 70%. Noteworthy is that cow reproduction yields an even number
of male and female offspring. It has been shown in humans that
sperm entering the cervix at the time of the lowest viscoelasticity
of the cervical mucus will favor male infants, while sperm entering
the cervix at slightly higher viscoelasticity levels will favor
female infants. The Company believes this also applies to the
breeding cow population.
Hormones
The Artificial Insemination process begins with
an injection of Gonadotropin Hormone on "Day One." On
"Day Eight" another injection of hormones takes place
(Luteal Release Hormone). On "Day Ten" an injection
of Gonadotropin Hormone is given. "Day 11" Artificial
Insemination takes place. This cycling of hormones is believed
to increase the successful rate of pregnancy.
Cost
Prior to artificial insemination the primary method
of breeding was to observe the cow "in heat" and allow
nature to "take its course." Artificial Insemination
adds approximately $250 to the cost of each cycle attempted.
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The Boston Rheology Breeding Rheometer
The human female and the cow produce nearly identical
cervical mucus. At the maximum fertile period, the human female
produces 1.0 ml of mucus and the cow produces 40 ml. Measuring
the viscoelasticity of cow mucus will dramatically improve the
success rate of achieving pregnancy with or without Gonadotropin
stimulation of ovulation. The Rheometer tells the inseminator
the minimal viscoelasticity of the cervical mucus which occurs
during the most fertile period and corresponds to the maximum
estrogen hormone level and the minimum progesterone hormone level.
This will yield the highest success or "take" from insemination.
Determining this window is easy to do using the
Boston Rheology Breeding Rheometer. The procedure was done by
one college student with no prior field experience in clinical
studies at the Vermont Agricultural College. In the Boston Rheology
Breeding Rheometer process, mucus is removed from the animal by
an "off the shelf" catheter and 0.2 ml is placed in
the machine and a reading obtained. The device is designed to
enable an operator to "accidentally" use up to 1.0 ml
of mucus and still obtain accurate readings.
With a minimum of 3 readings and an average of
5 readings a month, the Boston Rheology Breeding Rheometer will
tell the operator where the cow is in her cycle.
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Success Rate of the Boston
Rheology Breeding Rheometer
Cows at the Vermont Agricultural College were
studied using "heat" with Gonadotropin hormone stimulation
and tested with the Boston Rheology Breeding Rheometer at the
same time. The blood hormone correlation with ovulation was 100%
with the minimal viscoelasticity reading and 75% correlated with
the Gonadotropin hormone induced cycles. Using the human model
and the near complete similarity of the cow and human mucus, initial
pre-sexing results should produce 70-80% female cows, which are
of highest value to the dairy industry. Studies by the company
show that the Rheometric method of ovulation induction will improve
both pregnancy success and the production of female calves by
25-30% over current methodologies.
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Market Definition
The estimated United States cow population is
97.3 million. Of that number 43.1 million are used for breeding.
Ninety-five percent of the time artificial insemination with drug
induced ovualtion is the preferred conception method at the present
time. The process has an estimated cost of $250 per event (total
cost estimated at $10.8 billion annually). This method is judged
to be 50% -70% effective and produces an equal number of male
and female offspring. Better determination of the fertility period
could potentially save up to $3 billion per year by eliminating
or dramatically reducing drugs used to induce ovulation.
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