A squad of international scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research has successfully transfer the first test tube rhino embryo into a foster southern white rhinoceros . Now , they hope to use the same routine with the spermatozoan and eggs of northerly white rhinos , a species whose population has dwindled to two females no longer able of carrying offspring themselves .
Researchers transferred the embryo into the womb of a southerly white rhino – the species most intimately related to to its northerly counterpart – at the end of May 2019 . Earlier this week , they denote the conveyance was successful in what they view as an important milestone in using procreation and stem prison cell technology to secure the survival of species on the defunctness snub cube .
Just before the death of the globe ’s last northerly whitened rhino in March 2018 , scientists collected his ejaculate and have hive away it in liquid nitrogen ever since . Today , only two females remain , Najin and Fatu , where they subsist in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya but are no longer able to carry offspring themselves . Researchers now trust to glean their eggs and expose it to the spermatozoan in an in vitro fertilisation ( IVF ) subprogram before transfer the fertilize embryos into the uterus of a southerly livid rhino , who will roleplay as a surrogate mother .
It ’s young territory and has never been performed before . Given the limited global provision of northerly white rhino spermatozoan , the squad wanted to check that they were successfully able to execute such a procedure .
But the biologic clock is tick . Researchers say they are waiting to receive the right paperwork to harvest the northerly white rhino egg , report theAssociated Press . Theyare quick to caution that the embryo is still belittled than expected and it ’s yet to be determined whether it will successfully implant in the uterine liner and result in a pregnancy .
demonstrate by Germany ’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research , the BioRescue labor allege their workplace will play an important part in developing method and technique for the conservation of multifariousness to save peril species .
“ Within this initiative , we primarily focus on promote precautional research aim at preserving biodiversity . Parallel to this , we also facilitate immediate measures to protect endangered specie , such as the ambitiousBioRescueproject , ” say Michael Meister , Parliamentary State Secretary , in astatement . “ Thanks to the telling combining of different research approach and the great commitment shown by those involved , there is now both the possibility and the promise that we will be able to preserve critically peril species such as the northerly white rhinoceros . ”
Generally speak , the International Union For Conservation of Nature report that rhino population are increasing throughout Africa for the first time in decades , but the northerly white rhino ( Ceratotherium simum cottoni ) has been nearly forced to extinction largely due to human bodily process .
