Dr. R. Peter Elsden is a
veterinarian with a Master's Degree in reproductive physiology. He was in mixed practice
for nine years, worked for a large cattle company for two years and was an associate
professor at Colorado State University for nine years (until December 31, 1984).
Presently, he offers his services through his embryo transfer consulting business.
While at Colorado State University, Dr. Elsden was Associate Professor on the staff of
the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, teaching
reproductive physiology and diseases to veterinary students. He was also Director of the
Animal Reproduction Laboratory's Embryo Transfer Unit, which included commercial, teaching
and research interests.
Dr. Elsden developed techniques to nonsurgically recover and transfer embryos to
amplify the reproductive potential of selected donors of high genetic value and to
circumvent some kinds of infertility. In addition, his group developed a practical
technique of microsurgically dividing bovine and equine embryos to produce identical twins
which are useful for research and beneficial to the cattle and equine industries. Current
interests are in developing in vitro fertilization techniques, sexing embryos and
improving embryo freezing technology.
Dr. Elsden has lectured overseas on many occasions in his field and organized embryo
transfer programs in many countries. Over the last several years he has given numerous
courses on the techniques of embryo transfer to farmers, ranchers, and veterinarians. Dr.
Elsden consults for the United States Department of Agriculture, The Food and Agriculture
Organization of The United Nations, Winthrop International (Rockefeller), several foreign
governments, and many embryo transfer groups. He has over fifty scientific articles in
referred journals and numerous publications in popular cattle magazines. He is a past
President of the International Embryo Transfer Association. He was nominated a member of
the Spanish Academy of Sciences for Veterinarians in 1984 and was awarded the Oliver P.
Pennock Distinguished Service Award for meritorious teaching and research at Colorado
State University in 1985.
