DISCOVERIES
Northern white rhino embryos are ready to implant into a surrogate mother to try and save the subspecies from extinction
Hope is kindled for the white rhino as embryos are ready to implant into surrogates.
Northern white rhinos Najin and Fatu are the last of their kind. As they are both female and have no males to mate with, their species is considered functionally extinct. However, things may be about to change, thanks to the BioRescue research project, which involves an international group of researchers from Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Avantea Laboratory, Dvur Králové Zoo, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service. The team successfully harvested eggs from the two animals and artificiaaly
inseminated them using frozen sperm taken from now deceased males to create viable northern white rhino embryos for the second time, repeating a similar successful operation carried out in August 2019.
The animals were placed under general anaesthetic at their home in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, before nine immature egg cells – three from Najin and six from Fatu – were harvested from the animals’ ovaries using a probe guided by ultrasound. The egg cells were then transported to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy, where they were incubated using a cutting-edge desktop incubator donated by pharmaceutical company Merck. After being fertilised, one of the eggs from Fatu developed into a viable embryo and is now stored in liquid nitrogen along with the two embryos from the first procedure.
“Our repeated success in generating a third embryo from Fatu demonstrates that the BioRescue programme is on the right track,” said Prof Thomas Hildebrandt, from Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. “Now, the team will make every effort to achieve the same result for the 30-year-old Najin before it is too late for her. We are strongly committed to our plan to transfer a northern white embryo into a surrogate mother in 2020 to ensure the survival of the northern white rhino.”
The next step is to select a suitable surrogate from the group of southern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Despite the fact that more research is still needed, the team expects that a first
attempt for this crucial, never before achieved step, may be undertaken in 2020.
“We are strongly committed to our plan to transfer a northern white embryo into a surrogate mother”