Guten tag!

We caught a later train to Bonn to visit the experimental farm yesterday. Although the bus ride out and the hike in were a bit warm, the farm was so much fun to look around. Just outside of a pretty big city is a little farm, nestled in 100 acres of grass. There were sheep, pigs, and cattle, as well as a little old farmhouse. We took a tour led by a German veterinarian, and he explained their methods of AI and genetic experiments. They basically cross various breeds with AI to see what they get. He also spoke about the vet situation in Germany. Apparently vets get paid very little, like $15,000. He said you could make that much cleaning toilets! Also, most of the vets are women. Although this is true of U.S. vets too, the pay is quite a bit better, even if it is still not a huge salary. He also said the job market is very difficult to get into here. I would not want to be a vet in Germany!

He showed us where he performs AI and the connecting laboratory where his techs look to see if they have viable embryos. We also visited the pigs and got to see several sows and their litters. Its incredible how large their litters are; one had 18 piglets! One poor runt couldn't find his way to a teat, and the vet said he probably wouldn't make it. Dr. Musser had some interesting comments about how empathy is important, but unfortunately, we live in a world where we must often compare the costs to the benefits when making decisions.

We also visited the sheep, where they are keeping alive one of the most endangered breeds of sheep in all of Germany. The vet predicted that the breed will be extinct everywhere but on the breeding farm in a few years. Apparently scrapie, which is a relative of BSE, is an issue for that breed. We then discussed BSE, Kreutzfeld Jakob Disease, and prion particles. Apparently only 179 people died of BSE, but over 300 farmers took their lives during the outbreaks. Insane.

We finished our visit with a tour of the lab. It was weird coming straight from a farm setting to a lab setting. The vet thawed some 2 year old sperm, and we could see it swimming under the microscope! That was really suprising, and he said that they had 50 year old sperm that was still viable!

After our trip to the farm, we headed to the Museum of German History. I really enjoyed this portion of the trip also. Although I knew that a divided Germany had existed, I never fully understood the breadth of the situation. It was surprising how much history there has been since the second world war. I guess German history is so vast that it has to be divided among several museums! The guided tour was really nice, and I'm glad we took it because the whole museum was in German, so it wouldn't have been the same without the translation.

The design of the building was very interesting; at one point it was divided by large metal pieces that symbolized the iron curtain. At another point, we looked down through a window from the 1970s to the 1940s, and we could see the difference in the economy through the exhibits. The walk up to the Space Age exhibit was very steep, symbolizing the challenge for the Germans to catch up to Russia and the U.S. in space exploration. Its interesting the way the design of a museum evokes such feelings; one would think that the exhibits would be the most powerful, but creative architecture adds an extra element to the picture.

After the museum, we caught a train over to the AIB Bonn, where we were met with a lovely dinner outside in a shady yard. We also had access to the computers. It was so nice of the AIB Bonn people to have us over; to take a break from all our hot walking.