Tuesday ; September 2, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3B
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Embryo transfer technology being used to upgrade herds
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FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) —It
gets a little confusing, but sometimes
it’s fun to play mental games.
A cow bears a calf, except the cow
isn’t really its mother — it’s the calf’s
grandmother. And although the calf
was born just today, its sire was
shipped for slaughter live years ago.
The mother was sold to another
farmer, also years ago.
How is it possible for a grand
mother cow to bear its own grand
child, and for the parents to be
somewhere else at the time of birth?
The answer is embryo transfer
technology, referred to as ET, and
Fergus Falls veterinarian Ken Nord-
lund is one of the pioneers of this
relatively new cattle-breeding
method.
The process involves transferring
the fertilized eggs of cows that have
proven to be superior milk produc
ers into the ovaries of other, infe
rior, cows.
The idea is to improve herds by
getting as many offspring as possible
from superior cows, while using in
ferior producers as surrogate moth
ers.
According to Nordlund, one of
the earliest successful ET s in the
United States was performed in Ot
ter Tail County in 1972.
“When that first calf was born, it
was enough to make the WaJJ Street
Journal," Nordlund said. “But the
method was a lot different back
then."
The first ET s involved major sur
gery on both the donor and the re
cipient cows. The cows were shipped
to a veterinary clinic, put under an
esthesia on an operating table, and
the fertilized embryos were removed
and transferred surgically.
Nordlund performed his first suc
cessful non-surgical ET in 1979 and
anothei in 1982. Since then, he has
performed dozens of succesful ETs,
resulting in more than 150 births.
The non-surgical method involves
washing the embryos out of the do
nor cow’s ovary with a phosphate-
buffered saline solution.
In effect, the solution is pumped
into a cow’s ovary and then pumped
back out again. When the fluid
comes out, the microscopic embryos
come with it. Nordlund then
searches through the fluid with a mi
croscope to locate each embryo.
Because the cow has been treated
with a fertility drug, the ovary will
usually contain more than one em
bryo. The average is seven, but some
cows have produced more than 30.
This is called “superovulation.”
After they have been separated
from the fluid, the embryos can ei
ther be placed in a recipient cow or
frozen for later use.
Performing an ET costs from
S250 to S750, Nordlund said. Much
depends on how many successful
births are produced each time it is
done. The more successful births
from each attempt, the lower the
cost.
“We re getting more efficient all
the time,” Nordlund said. “Out of
the first 100 transfers 1 did, 23 of
them were successful. Now we have
about 65 percent turn into pregnan
cies, and 45 percent of the frozen
embryos turn into pregnancies.”
Freezing embryos has only come
into use within the past three years, k
Nordlund said. It’s a valuable tech
nique because it prevents the loss of
embryos that can’t he transferred to
donors immediately.
If, for example, a cow produces
30 embryos, there will not likely be
30 donor cows available. T he estrus
cvcle of the recipient cows must coin-
Work part of the education
at North Carolina college
SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) —
Students at Warren Wilson Col
lege can do more than analyze a
Shakespearean sonnet or ace the
law boards — they also can breed
pigs, install a sink or replace a
truck valve.
“Everyone has to work," said
Dr. Reuben Holden, retiring
president of the small Presbyte
rian-related liberal arts college
near Asheville. “It has a very lev
eling el feet on the whole campus.
“The effect is that the students
go out into the world with a good
solid educational background in
liberal arts, plus the best of two
worlds... they can do things with
their hands."
Classic Fil
fhe college’s 470 students
alias suouw
work 15 hours per week in ex-
nervous rl
change for room and board. The
arniugbasM
67 campus work crews include
auto mechanics, foresters, com-
lint aiul.4
puter programmers, plumbers,
mlv I’orsclsB
(Itisini'sdE
photographers and admissions
recruiters. The farm crews pro
vide f ruits, vegetables and 70 per
cent of the beef for the campus
dining hall.
In addition, each student must
complete a 60-hour non-credit
service project. Many complete
their service in Third World vil
lages in what Holden calls a
“mini-Peace Corps.” Others go to
their hometowns and, for exam
ple, help build a new church.
Holden said the students’ edu
cation was further broadened by
the makeup of the student body.
About 12 percent come from 22
foreign countries; and while the
college was founded in 1894 by
the Presbyterian Church, it has
students from 21 different de
nominations, including Hindu
and Buddhist.
“We don’t require chapel any-
more, but we still feel strongly the
need for a basis of values m any
education,” Holden said.
Some of the graduates go into
social work, hut many also go into
business, law and medicine.
Student life is not all studying,
working and serving. Holden said
main students take advantage of
the recreational pursuits offered
by the Blue Ridge Mountain set
ting, such as camping, hiking,
boating and cave exploration.
Many faculty members have
come from larger universities —
particularly Yale, where Holden
was a secretary before he came
here 15 years ago.
“Here they can do their own
thing — set up courses of their
own, using our farm and forests
and not having to worry about a
lot of bureaucracy,” said Holden.
“The drawing power of a little
college is that they can play an im
portant part in a small commu
nity"
Program to train deputy officers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)
— The Broward Sheriffs Office has
more than 400 correctional officers
to handle detainees and prisoners at
three county lockups. Although they
are deputy sheriffs, they do not have
arrest powers and do not all carry
guns.
A pilot program is changing all
that. Called “cross certification,” the
program was initiated this year by
sheriff Nick Navarro to bridge the
separation of correction and road
patrol officers and provide a larger
complement capable of serving in ei
ther capacity whenever an emer
gency arises.
The first class of 17 selected cor
rections officers was graduated re
cently after 220 hours of additional
studies and training to qualify them
as road patrol deputies, complete
with arrest powers.
The added training provided the
deputies emphasizes search and sei
zure, criminal law, patrol tech
niques, crimes against property and
person, accident investigation, fire
arms, emergency medical response
and rules of evidence, explained
Commander Tom Mclnerney, in
charge of training for all deputy
sheriffs.
“Under certain conditions — hur
ricanes, riots or a shortage of road
deputies — the sheriff can call on
these people to help out,” added Mc
lnerney.
Something else for the new grad
uates to look forward to is six weeks
of field training with seasoned road
officers, Mclnerney said.
After that, they return to their
regular duties.
Targeted for the program are 53
jailers now assigned to transporta
tion, security, booking and the emer
gency response team, Navarro said.
Apart from enhancing the qualifi
cations of detention officers, cross
certification is a morale booster.
“It gave me a better understand
ing of what the road patrol does,”
said Debra Reggio, one of the grad
uates, dubbed “criminal justice spe
cialists.”
Having arrest powers could prove
useful whenever she’s delivering de
tainees and prisoners to courts, hos
pitals and other facilities, she said.
“When something happens out
there, the public looks at the uni
form and the gun and expects you to
do something,” she said.
Before attaining her new title and
without arrest powers, any action
she might have taken could have
been a liability to the department.
A1 Demarest, a retired Army ma
jor with 20 years experience in the
military police, was in the first grad
uating class.
’T’ve got more credibility now,”
Demarest said. “I’m better equipped
to do the job and can explain road
patrol problems to others.”
Reggio and Demarest admit the
additional training and certification
have enhanced their opportunities
for advancement.
However, neither expressed a de
sire to leave detention work.
Navarro and Mclnerney are al
ready planning to reverse the cross
certification program to qualify road
officers as detention deputies.
“Why not?” observes Navarro. “It
would give us tremendous flexibil-
ity.”
T raining for detention deputies
includes state and federal rules and
regulations for corrections facilities,
sanitation, inmate classification and
institutional disturbances.
tide with that of the donors. Induc
ing estrus in enough cows at the
proper time is tricky business and
not always successful.
“The only problem is that there is
a significant loss when an embryo is
frozen,” Nordlund said. “Freezing
an embryo places a lot of trauma on
that mass of cells. A sperm cell can
be frozen unharmed relatively easily
because it is so small. But an embryo
already contains about 164 cells and
ice crystals can form on them and
destroy them.” .
To prevent them from being de
stroyed, Nordlund says embryos are
treated with a glycerol solution. But
the glycerol must be removed from
the embryo before it is transferred
to a donor.
Because ETs are becoming more
simplified, it is becoming economi
cally feasible for more farmers to
have them done. But Nordlund says
the operation is still only for the best
of cows.
“A calf should be worth from
SI,500 to $2,800 each to make it
worthwhile,” he said. “This is some
thing that is only for superior cows,
there’s no question about that.”
Researchers
seek to grow
crops in sand
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — Sand lies in
a 90-foot-deep layer over the Yuma
Mesa — not very promising farm
land. Yet, with the right kind of irri
gation and fertilizer, that sand can
be prime agricultural land, research
ers say.
Two University of Arizona soil sci
entists say they’ve demonstrated that
it’s possible to get commercially ac
ceptable yields of vegetable crops on
Mesa sand.
Dr. Bryant Gardner and Robert
Roth, Yuma Mesa Agricultural Cen
ter, use self-moving irrigation sys
tems, careful management of the ni
trogen fertilizer levels and a special,
modified deep chisel plow to grow a
range of vegetables.
They’ve tested asparagus, broc
coli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower,
cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes, sweet
corn and watermelons.
Roth says that the Mesa consists of
100,000 acres of fine, river-bottom
sand.
Some of the land is being used as a
bombing range.
Only 25,000 acres are within an ir
rigation district, with some of the
land developed for raising citrus
trees, - jojoba and asparagus.
“ The most important result of out
research is to show that we can get
the same yields of high-value vegeta
ble crops off marginal land as most
growers get from prime agricultural
land,” Roth says.
Furrow or flood irrigation is inef
ficient on this deep sand, the soil sci
entists say.
Water sinks so quickly into the
sand that an excessive amount has to
be applied to reach from one side of
the field to the other.
Nitrogen fertilizer follows the wa
ter — straight down.
Self-moving, low-pressure sprin
klers, spray or drop hose techniques
save energy and make both water
and fertilizer use more efficient.
Their experimental sprinkler irri
gation system is a self-moving lateral
design.
With light, frequent irrigations,
the soil stays moist during seed ger
mination.
Roth and Gardner say that seeds
can be planted shallowly.
Stand establishment under this
sprinkler system is comparable to
that on heavier, flood-irrigated soils,
they say.
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