SVF has recently completed a substantial expansion of laboratory facilities at its Newport, RI location. During the first five years of SVF’s operation, germplasm was processed in a small, 200 square foot laboratory and stored in an adjacent building. As the germplasm program grew to include onsite facilities for cryopreservation of cattle, sheep and goat embryos, along with a successful small ruminant semen preservation initiative and establishment of a long-term cell/blood bank, demands on the laboratory also grew. These varied activities, once spread out over 4 buildings, are now consolidated into a single, larger laboratory space constructed inside a renovated horse barn.
The new construction also accommodates additional cryostorage facilities to house the successful and expanding germplasm bank, which has grown to include more than 27,000 units of semen and embryos from 15 endangered breeds of cattle, sheep, and goats. |
