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Business Briefs |
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Hiscox acquires American Live Stock Insurance Co.
HAMILTON, Bermuda — Hiscox Ltd., the international specialist insurer, announces the acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, of ALTOHA, Inc., an insurance holding company, and its subsidiaries American Live Stock Insurance Co., the premier live stock insurer in the United States, and Harding & Harding, Inc., the affiliated insurance agency.
The purchase price is $55 million, which will be satisfied out of internal resources and Hiscox will acquire net tangible assets of $45 million. Closing is expected in July.
ALTOHA is a privately-held group owned by various individuals and its subsidiaries are based in Geneva, Ill. It has a staff of 23.
American Live Stock Insurance Company is an admitted insurance company with licenses in all 50 states. Its main business is animal mortality insurance for cattle and horses. In 2006 it had gross written premium income of $16.9 million and a combined ratio of 80.9 percent. As an affiliated agency, Harding & Harding, Inc. places all of its business with American Live Stock Insurance Company.
AntelBio offers testing on milk
LANSING, Mich. — Antel BioSystems, Inc. (AntelBio) announced it has validated two testing procedures for detecting Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) antigen in DHI milk samples.
Following the introduction of milk tests for Johne’s disease in 2001 and bovine leucosis in 2004, the new BVD tests will enable veterinarians and producers to identify persistently infected (PI) cows without the costs of animal sorting, restraining and sampling associated with traditional blood or ear-notch analysis.
The first test is a reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay designed to detect the presence of virus in bulk tank/group samples. It is capable of conservatively detecting a single PI cow in bulk tanks/groups containing milk from up to 250 individual cows.
The second test is an antigen detection ELISA for milk to detect individual PIT cows within bulk tanks/groups that have tested positive by RT-PCR. The milk ELISA used by AntelBio, it stated, correlated perfectly with more than 400 standard ear-notch and/or serum analyses in infected herds.
AntelBio stated in combination, these tests offer a convenient, cost-effective means of screening dairy herds experiencing or at high risk of BVD outbreaks. Its milk testing options are available by calling 800-631-3510 or by contacting your local DHI.
Battelle, labs win 12 awards
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Battelle and the national laboratories it manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy won 12 R&D 100 Awards in this year’s edition of the “Oscars of Innovation.”
R&D Magazine presents the awards annually to honor the year’s most significant scientific and technological innovations. Battelle won two, while the labs it manages or co-manages won 10 for technologies dealing with everything from advanced materials to solar energy.
Among the awards is one for Reactive Bio-Polyols, which was a joint submission with the Ohio Soybean Council of Columbus and the United Soybean Board of St. Louis, Mo.
This farm news was published in the Aug. 1, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 8/1/2007 |
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