IETS Meeting in Kyoto

It seems as though the ‘‘off season’’ forthe equine practitioner and academicianis extremely short, and by now has come

to a screeching halt. The breeding season isunderway and practitioners are once againputting in those long hours. There also seemsto be a rush to finish all the meetings beforespring arrives. The AAEP Convention wasa great success, as usual, followed by theNAVC in Orlando and the WVC in Las Vegas.

The first 2 weeks of my year were spent inKyoto, Japan, attending the InternationalEmbryo Transfer Society (IETS) meeting.While IETS is not a ‘‘horse’’ meeting, however,much cutting-edge technology in reproductionis first presented at this gathering. Although theanimal model may be a mouse, sheep, goat, orcow, the technologies in many cases end upbeing used in the horse industry as well.

Nearly 700 people were in attendance atthe 2007 IETS meeting, from 39 differentcountries. This organization typically holdsone or two full-day pre-conference symposia,a 3-day main meeting, and a post-conferencesymposium. One of the pre-conference sym-posia was on innovative techniques in humanand animal embryology. One of the sessionscentered on developing techniques for evalu-ating the health and development of oocytes(eggs) and early embryos in culture. Unlikethe horse, oocytes collected from most otherspecies can be matured and fertilized in thetest tube. I think if there is going to be a break-through in technology to mature equineoocytes in culture, it will come from some ofthe work done in other species. One of themost fascinating sessions of this symposiumdealt with embryonic stem cells. Much ofthe research presented at this symposium cen-tered on defining conditions for derivationand culture of embryonic stem cells. Otherareas of the conference, which have applica-tion to both humans and horses, concernedcryopreservation of oocytes and embryos.

Ed Squires, Editor

FROMTHE EDITOR

Edward L. Squires, PhD

94 Journal of Equine Veterinary Science March 2007