ABS Global
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial insemination, Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1941 |
| Founder | John Rockefeller Prentice |
| Headquarters | DeForest, Wisconsin , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Frozen bovine semen |
Number of employees | 340 (1999) |
| Parent | Genus plc |
ABS Global, previously known as American Breeders Service, is a prominent company specializing in artificial insemination, focusing on the distribution of frozen bovine semen. Its main office is located in DeForest, Wisconsin, and it operates internationally.
The company was established in 1941 by John Rockefeller Prentice under the original name American Dairy Guernsey Associates of Northern Illinois. It adopted the American Breeders Service name in 1950. By 1962, the firm was based in Madison, Wisconsin, and stored more than 1.5 million ampules of frozen bull semen using liquid nitrogen preservation.
After six years of negotiations, ABS entered the Soviet Union market in 1983 and marked a significant achievement by cloning two bulls, Divide and Duplicate, from a single embryo. During this period, ownership belonged to W. R. Grace and Company. The company changed its name to ABS Global in 1994 following its purchase by an investment banking firm.
On November 15, 1999, Genus plc purchased ABS Global from Protein Genetics, a corporation headquartered in New York. At the time of acquisition, ABS had a workforce of roughly 340 employees, with around 150 based at its DeForest headquarters.