Foetal Bovine Serum Origin: Paraguay-aseptically filled

Of all the different types of animal serum available, Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS) is the most widely used basal media supplement for in vitro cell culture. FBS contains very low level of antibodies, which combined with a higher concentration of growth factors (compared with adult or newborn sera), means FBS is effective in promoting and sustaining the growth of both mammalian and insect cells.

FBS aids cell culture growth in three key areas:
• Hormonal factors: to stimulate cell growth and function. Different cell lines are stimulated by different growth factors and by different concentrations of hormones.
• Attachment and spreading factors: many cell lines must first adhere to a surface before they can spread and proliferate effectively.
• Transport proteins: these shuttle minerals, lipids, vitamins and other essential nutrients within the cell.
In addition, the supplementation of basal media with FBS serves to increase its buffering capacity. This can be important for slow growing cell types, or where the seeding density is low, such as during cell cloning experiments.

Country of Origin
The country of origin for FBS refers to country in which the raw blood was collected.
Major FBS producing countries are Australia, Canada, Central America, New Zealand, South America and the U.S.A. While some countries may be considered more desirable sources of FBS than others, it is not true that FBS is of better quality from any given country. Desirability is linked to the disease status for each country (as described by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)) relevant to the application to which the serum is to be used. In addition, supply and demand plays a role making some sources of FBS more expensive than others. This is especially the case for New Zealand and Australia whose island nations have left the countries largely untouched by bovine diseases.
The OIE monitors the global incidence of animal disease including BSE and publishes this information on a regular basis. Regulatory authorities and processors use it as one of the critical determinants in deciding which countries may be used as a source of serum for certain applications with those sera acceptable for industrial use such as vaccine manufacture usually demanding the highest price in the market.

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