A very special AndroScope mission
“Provide evidence that a rhino bull is indeed infertile.”
The story behind:
When Sudan, a northern white rhino bull, had to be euthanized in a reserve in Kenya in March 2018, there was great sadness and dismay: He was the last male representative of his species. Today, there are only two northern white rhinos left in the entire world: two females named Najin and Fatu. Scientists, amongst others from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, want to save the species from extinction. Their "BioRescue" research project officially started in June 2019.
Given that Fatu cannot conceive naturally, and Najin is old with health problems of her own, BioRescue has focused on a plan to find a surrogate southern white rhino mother - of this closely related subspecies, there are still more than 20,000 specimens in the wild - to carry an embryo to term from collected northern white rhino eggs and sperm.
In recent years, eggs have been repeatedly collected from the two remaining rhino cows and fertilized in a laboratory with the thawed sperm of four already deceased males, to produce viable northern white rhino embryos. After fertilization in the test tube, the embryo is to be inserted into the uterus of a southern white rhino.
Theoretically, the 14 embryos that are currently stored in a tank of liquid nitrogen at -196˚C in Italy, will continue to be viable for thousands of years, waiting for science to catch up. On the other hand, it would be invaluable if the small northern white rhino baby, that would be brought back into the world, could be socialized by these last representatives of its species while Najin and Fatu are still alive.
When is the right time to implant the embryos into the surrogate mothers could be decided by the southern white rhino bull Owuan: In December 2020, Owuan was sterilized with the hopes that once he is placed with the prospective mothers, his behaviors will be able to tell the cycles of the surrogate southern white rhinos without being able to impregnate them. It can be difficult to identify when a rhinoceros is fertile, therefore using Owuan as a fertility indicator will enable the teams to determine the best time to perform an embryo transfer.
With scientists achieving a breakthrough at the end of 2022 with the creation of primordial germ cells, the project may now enter the next level: Preparations were resumed to Owuan being introduced to possible surrogate mothers. A last check was performed to verify that Owuan´s sterilization was successful – by the help of Minitube´s mobile CASA system AndroScope. The goal: the least percentage of motile spermatozoa.
All these painstaking efforts are worth it if it could succeed in preserving a species that would otherwise disappear completely from this world. If Minitube can contribute even a small part to the success, it makes us inestimably happy.
The story behind:
When Sudan, a northern white rhino bull, had to be euthanized in a reserve in Kenya in March 2018, there was great sadness and dismay: He was the last male representative of his species. Today, there are only two northern white rhinos left in the entire world: two females named Najin and Fatu. Scientists, amongst others from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, want to save the species from extinction. Their "BioRescue" research project officially started in June 2019.
Given that Fatu cannot conceive naturally, and Najin is old with health problems of her own, BioRescue has focused on a plan to find a surrogate southern white rhino mother - of this closely related subspecies, there are still more than 20,000 specimens in the wild - to carry an embryo to term from collected northern white rhino eggs and sperm.
In recent years, eggs have been repeatedly collected from the two remaining rhino cows and fertilized in a laboratory with the thawed sperm of four already deceased males, to produce viable northern white rhino embryos. After fertilization in the test tube, the embryo is to be inserted into the uterus of a southern white rhino.
Theoretically, the 14 embryos that are currently stored in a tank of liquid nitrogen at -196˚C in Italy, will continue to be viable for thousands of years, waiting for science to catch up. On the other hand, it would be invaluable if the small northern white rhino baby, that would be brought back into the world, could be socialized by these last representatives of its species while Najin and Fatu are still alive.
When is the right time to implant the embryos into the surrogate mothers could be decided by the southern white rhino bull Owuan: In December 2020, Owuan was sterilized with the hopes that once he is placed with the prospective mothers, his behaviors will be able to tell the cycles of the surrogate southern white rhinos without being able to impregnate them. It can be difficult to identify when a rhinoceros is fertile, therefore using Owuan as a fertility indicator will enable the teams to determine the best time to perform an embryo transfer.
With scientists achieving a breakthrough at the end of 2022 with the creation of primordial germ cells, the project may now enter the next level: Preparations were resumed to Owuan being introduced to possible surrogate mothers. A last check was performed to verify that Owuan´s sterilization was successful – by the help of Minitube´s mobile CASA system AndroScope. The goal: the least percentage of motile spermatozoa.
All these painstaking efforts are worth it if it could succeed in preserving a species that would otherwise disappear completely from this world. If Minitube can contribute even a small part to the success, it makes us inestimably happy.
