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Find Us in Asia
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Certification updates
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Meat Industry Figures
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What's happening to British calf numbers and price
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"British Livestock" a new magazine
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Sexed Limousin Semen - a world first!
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Opportunities in the genetics of cattle health and beef production
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Charolais genetics exported down under
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British Charolais makes breed debut in Romania
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New semen sexing technology
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Expointer And 100 Years of Devons in Brazil
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First British Charolais & Limousin semen exported to Mexico
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JSR plays a major role in Polish pig expansion
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Limousins are first British cattle into Poland
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Aberdeen-Angus export breakthroughs
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Gene markers boost performance
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Facts at your fingertips!
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Cogent Sexed Semen - A globally proven product
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Nice, if you can get it!
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Newdawn for the British pig industry
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SWALEX Success as Cumbrian sheep arrive in Estonia
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British Global Genetic Giants to merge
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Cattle exports going well for European countries
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Birth Data Highlight Beef Herd Changes
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Semen Exports’ £7 million boom
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Britbreed joins forces with CBS Technologies under the umbrella of Innovis™
[14 June 05]

Sympa and Goldies Terence arrive in Oz, and more Opera [6 June 05]

Firsts for British rare breeds pigs
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Genus reopens Brazil’s door to cattle semen exports
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Red faces? No, yet more sheep breeding developments in Britain!
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British Pig Association Active in Asia [15 Apr 05]

UK now a moderate risk BSE area [22 Mar 05]

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New UK dairy genetics testing programme for "Grazing Kings"
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Beef and lamb sales in Britain soar
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Nice Limousin calves Downunder!
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Fourth proven Montbeliarde joins Genus stud
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Click on any of the news stories above for further information

Innovis Ltd, the leading provider of artificial breeding services to the sheep & pig industry in England and Wales, has today [13 June 2005] announced the acquisition of Britbreed Ltd.

The acquisition brings Britbreed together with CBS Technologies under the umbrella of the Innovis Group and extends the provision of high quality artificial breeding services for livestock farmers right across the UK. Both companies have been active internationally and this move extends the potential scale of their operations to help clients outside the UK.

The two companies have already benefited from a close association as partners in the ARK Consortium providing semen archiving for DEFRA and through various other projects for the Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the British Livestock Genetics Consortium.

“The acquisition of Britbreed not only expands the group’s coverage of artificial breeding but will also provide an excellent platform for Innovis to offer some additional services to a prime livestock area of the UK”, says Dewi Jones, Managing Director of Innovis. “The enthusiasm and energy of the Britbreed staff is a tribute to its founders and complements our groups’ ethos to deliver quality, farmer-focused services.”

James Mylne and Jon Hunton, veterinary directors and founders of Britbreed are delighted to be moving into Innovis, saying that, “We view this as a very positive development for the Sheep Industry and hope to play an integral role in future operations and development of Britbreed within the Innovis structure. We can reassure our clients that this will be truly beneficial to the quality and range of services that Britbreed can offer in the future.”

Located near Ormiston, East Lothian; Britbreed services the heart of the prime sheep producing area of Scotland and the Borders. Britbreed will continue to offer the full range of services to their clients, and both James Mylne and Jon Hunton will be providing their veterinary skills to the business for the foreseeable future.

Provision of artificial breeding and complementary services in genotyping, disease monitoring and performance recording through Innovis will play a vital role in supporting UK farmers as they rise to the challenge of the EU move to decoupling. [13 June 05]

Innovis™ Ltd is the holding company for three complementary trading companies active in specific sectors of the animal breeding market in the UK. The companies are CBS Technologies which already provides services to the sheep breeding industry in England and Wales, plus Genes Direct and ART Porcine both of which provide services to the pig breeding industry. After a close association which began in 2003, the three companies came together under the Innovis banner in late 2004 led by Dewi Jones as Managing Director. Dewi Jones was responsible for establishing CBS Technologies as a spin-out company from the University of Wales Aberystwyth in 2002, acquiring at the time the trading activity of Edinburgh Genetics’ Malvern Centre (additional information on the Innovis Group can be found below).

Britbreed Ltd was established in June 2000 by veterinarians James Mylne and Jon Hunton who were formerly part of Edinburgh Genetics (a commercial operation set up by the Scottish Agricultural College). The business quickly expanded to provide an extensive range of breeding services for a variety of animal species but mainly sheep. The last three years have seen an increase in AI work, especially amongst the Hill Sheep sector. The business was relocated to the well equipped East-Mains Centre near Ormiston in 2004.
Innovis™ Limited (post acquisition) employs 50 staff, operating out of five (5) sites with a turnover in excess of £3M per annum.

Innovis™ Limited – Additional Information

Mission ‘To provide the UK livestock industry with a first class artificial breeding service for livestock and to use this established customer base to introduce new complimentary services in, scrapie genotyping; parasitology; disease monitoring; breeding consultancy and reference databases; electronic identification and traceability.’

The Innovis headquarters is located close to Aberystwyth in mid-Wales, at the heart of the Welsh sheep industry and from where CBS Technologies was originally established as a spin-out from the Institute of Rural Sciences at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. Finance and administration operate from there as do the main marketing and R&D sections, the backfat scanning, parasite management and Innovis sales teams. Innovis is also the sole UK distributor for IMV Technologies (France) products for pigs and sheep. IMV Technologies is the world leader in the design and of artificial insemination and embryo transfer equipment and techniques and is regarded as a standard reference throughout the world in animal reproduction.

Innovis, with Britbreed, has two excellent sheep AI centres – one at Bromesberrow near Ledbury and the other at Ormiston, near Edinburgh. Both AI centres have semen freezing laboratories which use the latest technology to enable Innovis to deliver high-quality semen for the UK and export markets.
• The sheep centre in Ledbury has new purpose-built ram facility can accommodate up to 100 Maedi-Visna accredited & non-accredited rams. The export isolation facility there has also expanded due to increasing demand from the overseas market.
• The Edinburgh Centre also has a new ram facility holding up to 50 rams, export facilities, housing for ewes for on-centre flushing and embryo transfer programmes, separate accredited and non-accredited fields as well as two large veterinary operating theatres and recovery units. The Edinburgh centre also has experience in the provision of AI services for goats, deer and dogs.

[14 Jun 05]