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is the most endangered mammal in the world, and its only two living members are a mother and a daughter, living in the Ol Pejeta cannery of Kenya.
However, scientists have managed to collect about 300 milliliters of sperm from the last four rhinos. they say that it is a large amount, albeit of too poor quality for insemination.
Having used part of this technique to fertilize the in vitro eggs of the closest relative – the southern white rhino – they hope to use the same techniques to create an embryo. a pure white rhino from the north with eggs harvested from both females. "In three years, we hope to have the first rhinoceros (northern white) born," said Thomas Hildebrandt of the German Leibniz Institute for Research on Wildlife and Wildlife, which co-directed the artwork. The results were published in Nature Communications on Wednesday.
Low grade sperm should be activated with a laboratory culture so that they can be used in an IVF technique known as intracytoplasmic injection.
Cesare Galli of the Italian animal-badisted reproduction firm Avantea, who was working with Hildebrandt, said that there was initially a strong chance of developing. the opposition of some conservationists to "interfere in nature" by using IVF or other laboratory techniques to rescue the northern white rhino.
"Many people working in the conservation area are very against the use of biotechnology, that the use of biotechnology was not abnormal and would simply correct a change in the environment. ecosystem created by human hunting rhinoceros.
"The northern white rhino has not failed evolution, it failed because it was not bullet-proof . He was shot dead, "he said.
" This caused an imbalance in the ecosystem … and we have the tools to correct that. "
(Correction of a typo in the third paragraph.)
(Reportage by Kate Kelland, edited by Kevin Liffey)
