Welsh based company Ovasort Limited has made a scientific breakthrough that will enable livestock breeders to pre-select the sex of pigs and cattle.
It is set to have a major effect on the livestock industry worldwide - creating significant economic and animal welfare benefits.
The company has discovered sex-linked proteins on the surface of sperm cells of both pigs and cattle, and has developed a prototype product to identify and separate the male and female cells for each sex in both species.
It is the first time that semen sexing has ever been commercially possible in pigs, whilst the advanced technology offers a much easier, faster and cost effective method of semen sexing in cattle.
Ovasort’s Chief Executive Dr Ian Cumming said the technological advances had been supported by funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and through access to world-class facilities at Cardiff University’s proteomics and genomics Laboratories.
It is to be field trialled later this summer in Scandinavia by their worldwide licensee for the pig sector, Danish Pig Production.
Dr Cumming described it as a significant milestone: "We are very excited to get to this stage of product development and hope to have a commercially available product on the market within a couple of years".
" We are indebted to the assistance we have had from Welsh Assembly Government to support our research in Cardiff University, as well as to the participation of our commercial partners."
Ovasort Ltd had funding from the Assembly Government to take forward research and development and to purchase specialist equipment.
Lesley Griffiths, Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills, said innovation is key to the country’s future competitiveness.
"The development of new products, processes and services and the commercialisation of R&D will be vital to our future in an increasingly competitive global market. I am therefore pleased the Assembly Government has helped Ovasort in developing this technology which is creating significant interest from the livestock industry."