THE annual conference of the European Embryo Technology Association (AETE) will be held in Ireland for the first time. A local committee of Irish vets, including Co Clare-based Jim Quinn, have the task of organising AETE’s 41st annual conference which will be held in the Clayton Hotel, Cork, from September 3rd-5th.

This year’s meeting has an emphasis on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in the mare and the timetable includes an all-day equine pre-conference on Wednesday, September 3rd and an afternoon workshop on the following day.

Among the global experts at this prestigious event are Prof. Cesare Galli and Giovanna Lazzari of Avantea, the largest Equine IVF lab in Europe and the first team in the world to clone a horse; Matheus Felix, from Pennsylvania State University, whose team have produced the first non-ICSI foals in IVF; Ed Squires from Vetoquinol Ltd, who pioneered equine ET while at Colorado State University; Niamh Lewis, who runs a mare IVP programme at UCD vet school; Katrin Smit, who heads the equine repro section of Utrecht Vet School, as well as many others from commercial ET practices, such as Dr Denis Necchi, Belgium and Dr Johnathan Crabtree, UK.

This conference will also host the largest commercial exhibition of equine breeding and ultrasound equipment in Europe, with a range of exhibitors uncluding IMV, Minitub, Agtech, PETS, EI Medical imaging and Draminski.

See www.aete.eu/annual-meeting/ for further details.