A feature story about Colorado State University veterinarians’ quick action to save the eggs of a mare that died as a result of a tornado, has been selected as one of the top five stories of the year by NBC’s national Nightly News.
The feature, which aired on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last spring, tells the story of Tuesday, an American Quarter Horse mare that belonged to a Windsor, Colo., family. Tuesday was fatally injured when a tornado touched down and devastated parts of Windsor on May 22, 2008. CSU veterinarians were able to harvest Tuesday’s ovaries at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital shortly before her death, and staff at the Equine Reproduction Laboratory used state-of-the-art assisted reproduction technology to generate embryos from eggs recovered from Tuesday’s ovaries.
As a result of the technology and efforts of the ERL, two pregnancies were carried to term in surrogate mothers. In April 2009, Tuesday’s healthy twin foals were born four days apart, almost a year after their mother’s death. The twin foals were named Thursday and Windsor through a vote by the local community.
The story selected by viewers through an online vote as the favorite story of the year will receive $10,000. If Tuesday’s story is chosen, the funds will go to the CSU Foundation for use in the Equine Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which treats premature and critically ill newborns foals, and to support the equine reproduction class that teaches undergraduate and veterinary students to care for pregnant mares and their foals, including foals in crisis. To view the story, visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news-latest/#30814609.
