Test tube rescue for breed hit by epidemic

Evie Church, of Lofthouse, Nidderdale, was just three during the dreaded 2001 epidemic, during which 10 million sheep and cattle were culled and the very existence of several breeds came under threat.

But as she grew up on her father Richard’s farm, she heard horror stories from family and friends over the scale of the crisis and vowed to do something to help.

So when neighbour Dianna Bowles, a Professor of Biochemistry at York University who founded the Sheep Trust, was searching for a surrogate mother to inject with the embryos from threatened sheep breeds frozen during the height of the outbreak, Evie immediately offered up two of her flock of 30 sheep.

Now one of Evie’s ewes has given birth to twin Herdwick lambs – 20,000 of which were culled at the height of the outbreak – and another is on the way. Experts are delighted with the result, which confirms the idea that preserving embryos can ensure a breed is protected from extinction.

“I wanted to do anything I could to help so I volunteered two of my sheep”, Evie said.

“It’s good to know something positive can come out of that awful time.”