A lot of things fall to prompt freeway or highway closures--but it's not usually bull semen. Oranges, lemons, fruits of many varieties have all caused major arteries to be shut down. But fruit spills -- unlike unidentified canisters in Tennessee -- don't cause a scare to emergency crews over vapors, foul smell and wonders of toxicity.
It wasn't by truck, it was by Greyhound bus. Canisters full of frozen bull semen apparently took a dive -- falling from a traveling Greyhound and causing a highway scare when emergency officials discovered the canisters of semen emitting vapors on a roadside near Nashville by the I-65. The 'smoking' canisters were finally deemed non-toxic by emergency crews and officials after the contents were learned.
The bull semen shipment seems to have taken a quick exit on August 22, when the Greyhound bus took a curve for a ramp -- leading from the Interstate 40 to Interstate 65 highway -- right before 6 a.m. It was a scene that took roughly three hours to clear before 9 a.m. Nashville, Tennessee, police and fire crews headed to the scene after reports of a foul odor. It seems those canisters were leaking -- and, despite the small number of them, things still weren't smelling good to those in the vicinity.
Four canisters of bull sperm, on dry ice, were slated for transport from Columbus, Ohio, to Laredo, Texas. But the breeding facility had an unforeseen pitfall when things took a dive right before the I-65 in Tennessee. The canisters may not have been big, but apparently carried a wallop when firefighters discovered "four small propane-sized canisters [that] began to emit a light vapor" -- an odoriferous one.
Cops shut down the highway or ramp until content of the containers described as 'smoking' could be determined. Reports vary: Some say the bus driver called the fire department after somehow being alerted to the fact that four, small, propane-sized tanks had fallen from the bus -- while others insist the driver was unaware of the lost cargo and that containers were only traced back to Greyhound after bus tickets were found laying on the ground. Most people, playing the role of bus driver, probably wouldn't care to retrieve fallen cargo carrying that kind of odor. Either way, the Greyhound driver supposedly returned to pick up the batches -- though it's unclear, with reports of the foul odor, whether the bull semen was even usable after the fall or damages to containers.
With each canister transporting up to 400 straws of one milliliter of bull semen each, it was an expensive load to lose. WKRN reports each straw of semen to be worth between $18 to $50 bucks depending on the source -- meaning the lost cargo could have been worth up to $80,000.
An unusual and worthy fact of note, particularly for Greyhound bus travelers: A Greyhound spokesperson who spoke to WKRN relayed the information that its buses are used to transport bull semen. In other words, it's not a one-time occurrence. Canisters of bull semen contain liquid nitrogen, to maintain frozen status, and can apparently -- according to Greyhound -- only be transported by ground. Of course that doesn't rule out the idea of trucks as a method for transportation. But a bus company's got to make money.
It all explains one thing: why horse semen 'shots' for human consumption at festivals have flavor options. Perhaps that added 'flavor mask' has to do with more than one of the five senses -- like smell.
It was apparently supposed to ease travelers' minds when Greyhound told WKRN that bull semen is packed and transported in a separate compartment from passenger luggage. So if passengers ever wonder whether it's their traveling companion that doesn't smell right, there just may be potential for another leaking source.