Welsh company in global deal for pig gender technology
Media Release Ovasort Limited 060908

Welsh start-up company Ovasort Limited has signed a global deal with the owners of Danish Bacon for a new genetic technology which could allow pig breeders to pre-select the sex of new-born animals.
Ovasort, originally spun out of the University of Bristol Veterinary School and now based in Wales, is undertaking a major research and development programme at Cardiff University. The team aims to develop the world’s first low-cost, high-volume sperm separation technology acting at the cell surface, allowing production of male-enriched or femaleenriched pig semen.
The technology could dramatically improve the commercial efficiency of supplying breeding gilts (young female pigs) to the pig industry. It would also result in fewer male piglets being born, reducing the requirements for castration or unnecessary slaughter.
Ovasort has now signed an exclusive global licensing agreement for the use of the technology in pigs with Dansk Svineproduktion (Danish Pig Production) who operate as Danish Bacon in the UK. The major Norwegian pig-breeding co-operative, Norsvin, will also work with Dansk Svineproduktion on the collaboration.
The present research programme is directed by Ovasort’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Ian Brewis, Lecturer in Proteomics and Bioinformatics at Cardiff University and expert on the study of the sperm cell surface. Dr Brewis also heads the Cardiff Proteomics Research Centre which employs state-of-the-art approaches to analyse proteins in biomedical research. Ovasort has also just won a prestigious SMART Cymru Award from the Welsh Assembly Government for the commercial development of this potentially very valuable new technology.
The technology will produce specific molecules which bind together X-chromosome bearing (female) sperm cells, leaving unbound Y-chromosome bearing (male) cells free to be filtered from the sample. The bound or ‘agglutinated’ female cells can then be de-agglutinated leaving two separate populations of cells for immediate incorporation into a conventional Artificial Insemination dose of sexed semen. The technology also has potential for exploitation in cattle and other livestock.
Dansk Svineproduktion is part of the newly re-organised Danish pig industry. Its main areas of work are in pig breeding, animal health, nutrition, reproduction, housing and production systems. Head of the Dansk Svineproduktion Department for Nutrition and Reproduction, Neils Kjeldsen, said: “This patented technology offers enormous potential to livestock farmers, and we are pleased to be collaborating with Ovasort in the pig sector, and to be their licensee worldwide.”