Scientists produce test-tube horses

Quickzee and Eazee were created in a test-tube

Scientists in Newmarket, UK, have produced Europe's first test-tube foals.

Five-week-old Quickzee and his brother Eazee, who is six weeks old, were born following IVF treatment similar to that used to help people with fertility problems.

The foals are part of a research programme designed to create better horses for eventing, show jumping and dressage.

But they are not being bred for racing as the sport has very strict rules on breeding.

Test-tube foals have been produced twice before - by researchers in Australia - but the scientists in Newmarket believe they have developed a more reliable technique.

Sperm is injected into an egg using an ultra-thin glass tube

Sperm is injected into an egg using an ultra-thin glass tube. Researchers then grow the resulting embryos in test tubes for eight days before carefully implanting them inside surrogate mares.

Professor Twink Allen of the Equine Fertility Unit in Newmarket said the technique could make it easier to modify the genes of horses in the laboratory to improve their performance.

"I personally see nothing wrong with it," he told the BBC.

"We breed horses with an intention to win at Badminton, or jump the jumps at Hickstead, or whatever it might be, and if we can create one that does it better by putting the right gene in place then why not?"

Condemnation

He said that although he planned to try genetic modification, the technology in horses was "a little way down the road".

I think if you are going to do any procedure to an animal you have to justify it morally

Joyce D'Silva, Compassion In World Farming

"We're waiting for our colleagues in mice and rats and laboratory rodents to teach us what to do," said Professor Allen. "But if and when they do, and can, we will be there."

However, the research has been condemned by the animal welfare organisation Compassion In World Farming.

"I think if you are going to do any procedure to an animal you have to justify it morally," said director Joyce D'Silva.

"And just so you can get an animal that can jump a few centimetres higher at Hickstead, can you really justify this?"