Champaign, Illinois (March 10, 2021)
We are proud to announce that Epivara is the recipient of the Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize! This year's AgTech Innovation Summit, like so many things, took place online with more than 900 people attending from around the world.
Although we couldn't be together in person to celebrate innovation in agriculture, Drs. Ko and Hess were honored to receive the award presented by the Research Park along with the Moore family. “We found a major problem in agriculture, which is surgical removal of gonads from healthy animals,” said Ko, founder and CEO of Epivara and a faculty member in the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, reflecting on the origins of the company. “We thought, let’s do something to make it more humane and at the same time, economical [...] Now we have funding coming from many different sources and we are using the funds to test our products in pigs at university farms, and some other species. It’s an exciting moment, me as a basic scientist reaching a place where we have a product that can impact industry.”
According to Research Park website, "The award honors the legacy of Edwin E. Moore (1924), who graduated from the University of Illinois College of Agriculture and began farming in Will County. Throughout his agricultural career, he and wife, Iva, used innovative farming practices for both crop production and livestock management. Two of their four children became farmers, Edwin and Thomas (1953, College of Agriculture), and continued use of innovative farm practices. Subsequent generations of Edwin Moore’s family have continued to pursue farming and ag related careers capturing the same innovative spirit."
We're pleased to be part of the incredible work happening around improving and innovating in the ag space and look forward to working closely with our community to change the way we neuter animals in agriculture.
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