On June 26, 2014, Select Breeders Southwest (SBSW) in Aubrey, TX opened their doors and welcomed a group of 30 plus USDA Veterinarians from across the United States as part of a 3 day Equine Semen and Bovine Embryo Export Facilities Inspection Training. Official veterinarians from the USDA are responsible for conducting facility inspections in order to certify centers are in compliance with all of the rules and regulations required by the European Union (EU) for semen to qualify for importation into any EU member country. SBSW is an EU approved equine semen collection, processing and storage facility. Other countries require similar certification: Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. SBSW is certified to collect and export equine semen to all of these countries.
Paul Loomis, founder and CEO of Select Breeders, met with the group earlier in the week and kicked off the training with a slide show presentation giving a step by step explanation of equine semen collection and processing techniques and equipment used.
Then the SBSW collection center, storage facility and export stallion barn turned classroom as veterinarians were lead through an actual inspection process.
Loomis lead the group through the lab and gave more explanation of SBS’s state of the art equipment and answered questions on SBS’s Standard Operation Procedures for not only collecting equine semen but freezing, storage and distribution as well. Meanwhile, SBSW Storage and Distribution Manager, Patrick Rollins sat down with each group and answered questions on meeting inspection requirements for the EU.
At the end of the inspection the USDA instructors thanked Paul and the SBSW staff and presented him with a commemorative award expressing their gratitude for his generosity in turning the facility over to them for the training. Loomis promptly turned the award over to members of his staff and said they did all the work to make it possible and went on to say he was honored to have the Texas facility selected as a site for the training.
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