Data relating to 35,389 inseminations carried out in the first three years after inseminators were trained were collected by postal questionnaire from 94 do-it-yourself (DIY) artificial inseminators in the UK. The mean calving rate from 14,528 inseminations they carried out on 92 farms in the first year after they were trained was 59.4 per cent (range 5 to 92 per cent). In the second year the mean calving rate from 11,515 inseminations by 64 inseminators was 62.3 per cent (range 33 to 88 per cent), and in the third year the mean calving rate from 9346 inseminations by 49 inseminators was 64.6 per cent (range 41 to 92 per cent). There was an increase of 5.2 per cent in the mean calving rate over the three years with an overall mean calving rate of 61.5 per cent. Each trainee carried out an average of 376 inseminations (range 20 to 800) during the three years. Thirteen instructors were responsible for the tuition and the average time the trainees spent in an abattoir with access to live cows was 2.88 days, with a range from none to five days. For the trainees who spent up to three days training in an abattoir there was an increase of 5.9 per cent in the calving rate they achieved in their first year for every day they spent training with access to live cows (P < 0.005), but there were no significant effects on the outcome of their inseminations in their second or third years.

Syringe labellingI was interested to read in the March 2003 edition of Anaesthesia News that the four Councils have decided to adopt what has become known as the International Colour Coding System for Syringe Labelling as is used in North America and Australasia. Manufacturers have already started circulating samples for anaesthetists to use. I have noticed that the colour labelling of the antagonists of commonly used drugs (for example flumazenil, neostigmine, labetolol, naloxone) are clearly identified by a striped diagonal border. The sample labels being circulated are predominantly white with a striped diagonal border alternating with that of the corresponding agonist colour. It is my experience from working in Australia that the same labels are predominantly coloured with the same striped border -that is the background label colour is the same as the agonist and not white. Having read the Australian and New Zealand Standard for User Applied Drug Labels in Anaesthesia it is understandable how its wording could be misinterpreted. Furthermore, I notice that some of the manufacturers are putting out labels with drug combinationsfor example propofol with lidocaine. If manufacturers are marketing this as the standard that complies with Australasia then this would appear to be incorrect.

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