Assisted reproduction and horses

Hank Greely writes: "Amongst thoroughbred horses, at least, artificial insemination is taboo. The industry, controlled in North America by the Jockey Club , is the last, odd redoubt of the vitalism, arguing that some vital and essential spark is transmitted from sire to mare (dam?) in the act of breeding. It is generally believed that this is an anti-competitive measure intended to eliminate a market in frozen semen, presumably out of fear that a handful of studs would get all the stud fees (though none of the equine pleasure from it). A similar rule applies to in vitro fertilization and egg donation - otherwise, particularly highly thought of mares might be able to have hundreds of genetic colts a year. (See the excerpt below horseracing.about.com.) It's interesting that the industry does use DNA - it requires DNA tests to confirm the horse's parentage, which must mean that all the sires and dams are tested as well. It's also interesting that horses were among the most recent mammals, the feat having been first accomplished last August, after a mule was cloned. I suspect knowledge about the equine reproductive system has been limited because of the thoroughbred rules. I did find a website that had a lot of information about artificial insemination in horses, and a note that all embryo transfer restrictions have been dropped by the American Quarter Horse Society in settling a law suit from some breeders. Apparently the entire horse world does not follow the thoroughbred rules. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who knows more about the limits of assisted reproduction in horses.

All Thoroughbreds, regardless of their actual date of birth, are given an official birthday of January 1st to keep the age groups easily defined for race conditions. They must be registered with the Jockey Club within a year of their actual date of birth and must be DNA typed to prove their parentage. To be eligible for registration, both parents must be registered and DNA/blood typed and the foal must be the product of a live cover and not artificial insemination or embryo transfer. There are a few other rules which you can review here".