WEATHERBYS Scientific, which undertakes the parentage verification of all Irish-born thoroughbreds, has relocated from the Irish Equine Centre to a state-of-the-art and purpose-built facility at M7 business park, a short distance outside of Naas.

Dr Rebecca Weld, operations director of Weatherbys Scientific, explained: “Our Scientific business has grown 10-fold in the last few years and we expect that this growth will accelerate further in the coming years.

“Our new laboratory at the M7 business park will mean that we will be able to grow with confidence and manage the business within a specialist facility complete with custom built laboratories housing state-of-the-art technology platforms, designated sample receipt areas and extensive biobanking capabilities.

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“We are extremely grateful to our former landlords at the Irish Equine Centre and our move has simply been a question of outgrowing that facility. It is hoped that the equine element of the Scientific business will return to the IEC in time.

“Indeed Weatherbys General Stud Book will themselves possibly relocate from their office in Naas to the IEC as and when the re-development plans at that site are complete.”

Weatherbys Scientific has transformed its business in recent years as a result of huge investment in genetic technologies.

It is now established as one of Europe’s foremost laboratories offering services to customers anywhere in the world and not just for horses, where its work originated, but also for cattle, pigs, sheep, dogs and other animal species.

It offers many specialist DNA services, high density genotyping, parentage verification, genetic traits, pedigree searching, species identification, forensic testing and biobanking using an array of cutting edge technologies.