Select Breeders Services (SBS) hosted its 19^th Annual Meeting of SBS Affiliated Laboratories in Lexington, KY on November 11^th and 12^th, 2019. As the largest provider of frozen semen services in the world, SBS has been a leader in the frozen semen industry for more than 30 years. Currently, we have 26 affiliate laboratories throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe and Australia. Each year, we gather together as a group to review our policies and procedures, discuss research results and recent developments in the industry, share information, learn from each other’s experiences and set plans for the future.

This year we were honored to have two guest speakers present information to us from their field of expertise. Dr. Dickson Varner of Texas A & M University is well known for his vast experience in stallion reproduction. He is a member of several professional organizations including the American Association of Equine Practitioners, American Veterinary Medical Association, American College of Theriogenologists, Society for Theriogenology and the American Society of Andrology. In 2016 he was the recipient of the Bartlett Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theriogenology from the society of Theriogenology and American College of Theriogenologists and in 2018 was inducted into the University of Kentucky Equine Research Hall of Fame. During our time together Dr. Varner offered his knowledge of sperm anatomy and physiology as well as shared several clinical cases with the group.

Our second guest speaker was Dr. Robert H. Douglas of BET, Inc. Dr. Douglas is the founder of several companies which are currently active and engaged either in diagnostics or veterinary pharmaceutical development and compounding or manufacturing and distribution. They include BET Inc. (1978/1984), B.E.T. labs do Brasil (1999), BioRelease Technologies + B.E.T. Pharm (2001). He is also the co-founding partner of BioRelease Australasia (2017). In 2019 he expects to launch BET Pharm do Brasil, a compounding pharmacy. He shared with us his extensive knowledge on the endocrine diagnostics of mares and stallions.

We wish to extend a special thank you to several groups who helped to make our annual meeting a success.

• Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital of Lexington, KY for hosting our 2019 annual meeting.
• Hagyard Equine Medical Institute for welcoming our group with a reception on Sunday evening.
• Lisa Lourie, owner of Spycoast Farm, for the tour of her beautiful facility and for hosting our group dinner on Monday evening. And to their veterinarians, Dr. Modesty Burleson and Dr. Julie Vargas, for the demonstrations they offered while we were at their facility.
• Merck Animal Health, Duane Chappell, DVM and Michelle Simpson for their generous sponsorship of our 2019 SBS Annual Meeting Group Dinner on Monday evening.

As an added benefit for our affiliate members, we offer continuing education (CE) credits through RACE/AAVSB for participating veterinarians and veterinary technicians. Planning for our 2020 Annual Meeting of the SBS Affiliate Laboratories will begin soon. If you would like additional information about our Affiliate Program or are interested in becoming a member of the SBS Affiliate family click here.

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