Posted on behalf of Charlotte Schubert
Researchers at Colorado State University are still reeling from a blaze, early in the morning of 26 July, that destroyed offices and labs at the Equine Reproduction Laboratory in Fort Collins. The cause of the fire, which caused an estimated $9 million-$12 million of damage to facilities and equipment, is still under investigation.
The fire did not affect the barns at the facility, and no people or animals were hurt. But a building that served 4 faculty members directly, along with 22 affiliated researchers “is pretty much gone”’, according to Thomas Hansen, director of the Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory, which runs the facility. According to Hansen, the laboratory was the first in the world to have foals born from frozen embryos, and from frozen sperm obtained from a dead stallion’s testicular tissue.
“Many of the most groundbreaking reproduction and assisted reproduction technologies have emerged from that facility,” says Frank Bartol, who does not work at the facility and is associate dean for research at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama. “The fire will more than likely retard the pace of basic equine assisted reproductive technology.”
The fire’s effects will also be felt beyond horse research. More than a dozen of the laboratory’s former trainees now run human fertility clinics, says Hansen. And some of the basic research at the facility also has human relevance, such as work on the mechanism of reproductive aging, says Terry Nett, a researcher at Colorado State University who collaborates with the equine center on a progesterone-based early pregnancy test for horses.
In addition, the laboratory also offers clinical services, and stored the sperm of performance and show horses. Some of these samples have been lost, according to Hansen. The full extent of the damage is still being assessed.
The local fire department, the Poudre Fire Authority, is heading an investigation, which also includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to Patrick Love, a spokesman with the Fire Authority. Love does not expect a report to be released for many weeks.
Discussions with the insurers and donors to rebuild the facility are underway, and researchers are already operating out of several temporary structures. “The faculty are devastated,” says Hansen, who estimates research work could be set back by seven months. “Just to watch Pat McCue [a researcher at the facility] walk through the embers, it was a tough time.”
Credit: Poudre Fire Authority