Select Breeders Service (Equine)

A Fleet of CEROS Helps SBS Maintain Quality Product

Paul Loomis is the founder and CEO of Select Breeder’s Service, Inc. (SBS), which offers a wide range of stallion services including semen evaluation, semen freezing for domestic and international use, as well as the industry’s most comprehensive frozen semen storage and distribution program. According to Loomis, “in recent years, the equine frozen semen industry has experienced tremendous growth and SBS has been instrumental in the adoption of the technology by breeders. It has been an unwavering commitment to quality that has resulted in an overall improvement in results and increased confidence by breeders that frozen semen will produce results comparable to other methods of breeding.”

As part of Loomis’ effort to provide the highest quality frozen semen, he turned towards Hamilton Thorne (HT) and the CEROS analyzer. A former HT employee, Loomis knows the HT CASA systems very well. Thus, when he left Hamilton Thorne in 1992 to focus on his own company, he had no qualms about purchasing a CEROS analyzer. “The CEROS is ideally suited for our applications as a tool for clinical semen analysis and quality control for our cooled and frozen semen production programs,” says Loomis. Now, fourteen years later, not only has the SBS network grown to include an international network of 14 affiliate laboratories but they also now own a “fleet” of 10 CEROS systems. Loomis believes that the CEROS has been beneficial to his business in a number of ways, including optimization of cryopreservation protocols, quality control, and inter-laboratory and inter-technician evaluations (see side bar).

“We use the CEROS to continually evaluate modifications and improvements to our cryopreservation protocols including changes in media, freezing rates, centrifugation protocols, etc. The CEROS also provides us with accurate and specific motion quality data that can be used to select optimum protocols for individual stallions when performing the initial freezing evaluations on a new stallion.”

Paul Loomis, MS, President
Chesapeake City, MD

“Post-thaw motility analysis using the CEROS is one of the key elements of our objective quality control program and is crucial for monitoring quality of commercially produced frozen semen by all of our Affiliated Laboratories. Employing an objective system for motility analysis is the only valid way to compare results between different technicians in a laboratory or between different laboratories within our network. With this objective measure of semen quality, our customers can be confIDENT® that frozen semen produced in Europe or Australia or North America will all meet the same strict criteria that we have established.”

Loomis sees continued growth in the commercial frozen semen industry over the upcoming years. “The health of the industry is evIDENT® in the fact that so much more semen is being frozen each year. Our network was responsible for processing nearly 4000 ejaculates (over 30,000 doses of semen) in 2005, an increase of 133% since 2000. Even more encouraging is the increased rate of usage of frozen semen as the number of doses of semen distributed from our central storage facilities is increasing at a rate of more than 30% per year. SBS is committed to maintaining our leadership position in the commercial frozen semen industry through continued expansion of our Affiliate Network and constant efforts to improve frozen semen technology and the practical application of frozen semen to the industry.”

When asked for any last words, Loomis said, “Having been a part of Hamilton Thorne for over 5 years and knowing many of the people there, I just wanted to thank everyone who has helped me over the last 20 years as I have grown my business from a basement office and small lab to what it is today. I have received tremendous support over the years and for that I am extremely grateful.” ……. You are very welcome Paul and we wish you continued success!