Stallion AI Services’ ground-breaking work honoured in The Queen’s Award for Enterprise
Wednesday 03 May 2023
Stallion AI Services has been recognised for their amazing work to protect endangered species and will receive The Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Innovation 2022 for the creation of Nature’s SAFE.
Set up in the year 2000 under the leadership of Managing Director Tullis Matson and known as a global centre of equine reproduction service provider, Stallion AI Services is the UK’s largest and one of Europe’s most advanced semen collection and distribution centre. Over 1,200 stallions have passed through its doors, from rare breed ponies to Olympic legends. It is the go-to for sport horse breeders.
Two years later, having established the commercial side of the business, Stallion AI Services made ground-breaking progress adapting similar technologies to save endangered species.
Saving the Suffolk Punch started it all and for the last two decades, they have worked with equine rare breed horses and made available the very latest technology in equine reproduction. This has helped establish biobanks and conservation breeding programmes, thus enabling a more positive future for endangered breeds. It was through this work the concept of a biobank for animals at risk of extinction was developed and Nature’s SAFE was born, the work expanding from horses into rhinos and elephants.
Nature’s SAFE is one of Europe’s first charity living tissue banks that is dedicated to animals threatened with extinction. Its mission is to save animals from extinction by collecting, indefinitely storing and regenerating reproductive cells and cell lines from endangered animal species. It has, to date, cryopreserved 165 different species.
The presentation by the Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire, Anna Turner, took place on Friday, 28th April at Chapel Field Stud in Whitchurch, Shropshire, home of Stallion AI Services. Only 2000 of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise – the highest award on offer to companies – have been presented since the 1960’s and just two for equine companies. It is believed to be the final award granted by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Tullis Matson is rightfully proud of the achievement: “We are absolutely delighted as an equestrian business to receive the highest of accolades and recognition for our work involving the latest technologies in assisted reproduction – it was the most wonderful endorsement.
“We hope that through our award, kudos will be felt throughout the industry as a whole and we hope we have been able to fly the flag for us all! But I couldn’t have achieved this without the dedicated team around me. This award is credited to the teams of both Stallion AI Services and Nature’s SAFE, without whom this would not have been possible.”
Link to Stallion AI Services: www.stallionai.co.uk
Link to Nature’s SAFE website www.natures-safe.com
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