IVF BID TO SAVE WORLD’S RAREST RHINO
THE world’s first attempt to create a “test-tube rhino” has been launched in Britain.
Just three northern white rhinos are left in the world. To save them from extinction, scientists are carrying out a pioneering IVF operation.
Sudan, a 43-year-old northern white rhinoceros – elderly in rhino terms – is the last male, while Najin and Fatu are the last two females.
All three live in a nature reserve in Kenya under 24hour armed guard to protect them from poachers.
Because of his age, Sudan is too frail to risk being left alone with the females in his enclosure, who themselves have medical problems that mean it is unlikely they could give birth naturally.
So in an attempt to save the species a team of zoologists hopes to create the world’s first IVF baby rhino – which could be born at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire.
However, the procedure poses many greater challenges than in human IVF, particularly because the animals are so large, weighing up to two tonnes.
A team of experts have visited Longleat and harvested nine eggs from the zoo’s three female southern white rhinos, Morashi, Razima and Ebun.
The eggs have been frozen and transported to a laboratory in Italy to be fertilised with sperm extracted from Sudan and other male northern white rhinos that have since died. If successful, the resulting IVF embryos will be implanted into a selected group of female southern white rhinos – potentially at Longleat – later this year.
Experts hope to use this method to eventually harvest eggs from the two living female northern white rhinos to produce a “pure northern white rhino” embryo to preserve the endangered species.