CryoWEB: Web software for the documentation of the cryo-preserved material in animal gene banks

Many countries in the world have set up national domestic conservation programmes and collections of long-term storage of cryo-preserved animal genetic material. We have developed a web based software - CryoWEB for the documentation of such collections. The software is generally applicable to all livestock breeds, independent of the donor's species and the type of preserved material. The software can record basic herd-book information for the donor animal, the structure of the storage facilities, description of the stored samples and their distribution within the gene bank. It also traces the movements of the sample vessels within the storage facilities and the usage of sample units. The outputs implemented in CryoWEB address the informational needs of the gene bank manager in her everyday tasks.