I would like to add a couple thoughts:

Genetically Modified Organisms completely fit the ‘horrific sci-fi’ label – (even though we all eat and feed our alpaca GMO’s every day – with NO idea of how this will affect their health or ours; >84% of all soy and >98% of all corn in the US is GM; corn derivatives are in essentially every packaged foor product, and all alpaca feed). For the first time, the riddle ‘What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?’ – or a fish and a tomato – can be answered.

A.I. (artifical insemination) just allows us to be a ‘middleman’.

E.T. (embryo transfer) is also pretty ‘low tech’: it just allows a cria to develop naturally, in a different ‘mom’. Kinda like adoption before birth.

Neither semen not embryos need to be frozen to make these techniques useful to:
- minimize risk of disease transmission between males & female
- cooled semen can be shipped overnight, once the technique is perfected for alpacas
- allow older females or those that cannot carry a cria to term any longer due to dystocia, injury, etc
- raise more than one cria from a superior female per year

Freezing and storage in a nitrogen tank would allow shipping over longer distances, like to and from Australia, and preservation over time of both semen and embryos.

There are pros and cons to most anything in life, but these two procedures are interfere minimally with the natural processes of life compared to GMO’s and the impact of chemical pollution. Many cattle & goat breeders in the US do A.I., and a number of alpacabreeders in Australia do their own E.T. – in their own barns.

Thanks for letting me share my perspective.
Linda Marie McWilliams
Inti Alpacas, llc