When my husband’s grandfather started using AI in the 1950s, things were a lot different. My grandmother-in-law laughs even today about the sideways glances their use of AI provoked from neighbors and friends. At the time, semen came from U.C. Davis on a Greyhound Bus to Reno where he’d pick it up. Today, semen salesmen are on farms every day of the week (well, before COVID times at least.) One thing that’s stayed the same during the past 70 years of reproductive advancement: liquid nitrogen. The same technology that will be used to help end the global pandemic.
Pfizer announced last week that early data that showed a vaccine it has been developing was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. But, storing and distributing a vaccine — especially the potential Pfizer vaccine, which has to be frozen at -70°C until use — poses a significant challenge, according to a Washington Post story.
The Washington Post story explains how in the 1950s, cattle breeders played a “major role in developing and scaling up the technology to circulate biological materials globally at temperatures as low as -196°C.” That technology was liquid nitrogen.
“In what is known as the ‘cold chain,’ these supply networks made it possible to ship temperature-sensitive agricultural and medical products within and beyond the United States,” they wrote. “In other words, practices honed in the American heartland helped make cold-dependent therapeutics feasible — from organ transplantation to blood banking, artificial insemination to vaccine development and distribution.”
It’s not lost on me that the dedication of farmers seeking to improve their genetics, production and bottom lines more than 70 years ago is paying off today. And while liquid nitrogen is used in medical industries daily, let’s hope the COVID vaccine is a reminder of the importance in collaboration between animal agriculture and biomedicine. Together, we can go further faster.
