A huge breakthrough for endangered rhino species in Africa has been achieved through the world’s first in-vitro fertilization (IVF) rhino pregnancy. A team has successfully implanted a lab-created rhino embryo into a surrogate rhino mother for the first time, resulting in pregnancy. This could be a big step towards saving the northern white rhino, a species on the
Producing a southern white rhino embryo via IVF is a test run for the northern white rhinos in the future. The egg came from a female southern white rhino at a zoo in Belgium and was fertilized with sperm from a male in Austria. The fetus was then implanted in a southern white rhino surrogate female in Kenya. This was the 13th attempt to achieve a viable pregnancy.
“To achieve the first successful embryo transfer in a rhino is a huge step,” Dr Susanne Holtze, a scientist at Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Germany, which is part of the Biorescue Consortium, an international consortium trying to save this species, told
The fates of the two of Africa’s rhino species are closely intertwined. The
The
“I think the situation for the northern white rhino is quite privileged for the embryo transfer because we have a closely related recipient – so their internal map is nearly the same,” said Professor Thomas Hildebrandt, the director of Leibniz IZW, to the BBC.
The team successfully implanted the southern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino mother creating the world-first IVF rhino pregnancy. However such major success was followed by tragedy as the pregnant female died from an infection of Clostridia bacteria just 70 days into the pregnancy.
A post-mortem of the mother and the fetus, which was found to be male, showed that it was 6.5 centimeters long and the team believed it had a 95 percent chance of being born alive.
While this is a devastating blow, the success of the pregnancy proves that the technique to impregnate a rhino via IVF is possible. This is a huge step because to create a northern white rhino calf, the team will have to use a southern white rhino as a surrogate since neither of the last two living females can carry a pregnancy.
“[W]ith this achievement, we are very confident that we will be able to create northern white rhinos in the same manner and that we will be able to save the species,” said Holtze.