McIvor Road Meltdown Causes Frozen Panic

Written By Kevin Pitstock, Editor & Australian Greyhound Racing Expert Contributor On Tuesday 15th April 2008  

A failure in one of two frozen semen storage devices at Bendigo’s McIvor Road Vet Clinic has caused panic amongst Australian studmasters and breeders. The AGRA licensed storage facilty, had a storage canister fail last Wednesday 9th April 2008. That failure meant that over 100 valuable straws of frozen semen defrosted rendering the semen worthless.

A spokesperson for McIvor Road Vet Clinic said that the error was discovered late Wednesday afternoon. They state that since that time they have been working closely with the AGRA, who register and track all frozen semen in the country; to “identify each frozen semen straw and its registered owners”.

Of the straws that we lost…many were stored here on behalf of the studmasters themselves on consignment…..which is normal practice. We have contacted all the studmasters involved and all have been very supportive and understanding.

Of the straws lost though, many were owned privately by breeders who by law are required to store their straws at registered frozen semen facilities.

We are contacting every straw owner by phone and advising them of the problem. Every person is being offered reimbursement of the cost of their straw at current market value or where possible we can help facilitate replacement of the straw from the stud dog’s current studmaster at no cost to the breeder. We are endeavouring to make everything as easy as possible and so far everyone we have rang have been fantastic to deal with and we truly appreciate their support.

The exact nature of just how many straws and which stud dogs those straws originated from is yet to be determined as the process involves identifying each straw number and then sending that information to the AGRA so they can retreive the straws history and identify that straws origin and its current registered owner.

However, it is known that amongst the lost straws were several imported from Ireland and a few from Australian based sires who have since deceased or are no longer fertile.

None of the straws will be covered by our insurance so we are wearing the cost of reimbursement of each straw out of our own pockets because we believe we have a moral obligation to do that. Where some sires straws will be difficult to replace and some have since passed we will be sending out statements to the owners of those straws advising them of our offer of compensation for those straws. That amount will reflect what we believe to be the current maket value of those straws. We intend to be quite open and receptive to any breeder who believes that offer may not be quite right.

McIvor Road Vet Clinic and its primary greyhound vet, Sue Collins; have a reputation second to none in the Victorian greyhound industry and under Sue’s guidance, the clinic boasts one of the highest conception rates in the country for its frozen semen procedures.

They would like to let all the involved client’s know that “they can rest assured that if we haven’t contacted them yet, they will be contacted soon and that we are endeavouring to make everything as easy as possible for those concerned”.

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