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Kenya: Biotech Saves White Rhinos From Extinction

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5 years ago

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Efforts to bring back northern white rhinos from the brink of extinction inched closer to fruition after an international team of scientists and conservationists managed to harvest 10 eggs from the world’s two remaining females — Najin and Fatu.

The team on Tuesday successfully obtained two eggs from 29-year-old Najin and eight eggs from her daughter, 20-year-old Fatu, at Ol Pejeta conservancy in Laikipia County.

The programme comes two years after the death of the world’s last male Northern White Rhino — Sudan. The bull died in March 2018 at the Ol-Pejeta Conservancy aged 45.

The oocytes were extracted from the animals’ ovaries using a probe with a movable needle guided by ultrasound.

According to the team of vets, anaesthesia and the extraction went on smoothly, after which the eggs were immediately airlifted to Avantea Laboratory in Italy.

White rhino bulls

The oocytes will in the next few days be incubated, matured and fertilised with sperm from already deceased Northern white rhino bulls. This will — hopefully — lead to viable northern white rhino embryos, which will be stored in liquid nitrogen alongside three embryos generated in previous procedures.

In August last year, the team conducted the first ovum extraction and another one was conducted in January this year.

The procedure carried out on Tuesday, which was the third, has raised optimism of success.

“The progress made so far in the assisted reproduction project is very encouraging and we look forward to the transfer of the already developed embryos into Southern White Rhino surrogate females here at Ol Pejeta Conservancy,” Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said after witnessing the historic event.