Thanks also to Italy, the northern white rhinoceros, a very rare species of which only two females, Najin and Fatu, and therefore destined to certain extinction, can survive.
Finally, a team of conservationist researchers from Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic have created a new embryo of the northern white rhinoceros in Padua, after having taken nine oocytes from the only two remaining females of the species and inseminated them with frozen sperm from deceased males.
The first extraction from the two females took place last August in the Kenyan reserve of Ol Pejeta and malindikenya.net had informed you about it, on December 17 there was the third with the transport to the Italian laboratories Avantea, in the province of Cremona. Here, after incubation and maturation, four oocytes from Fatu and one from Najin were fertilized with sperm and one of the five oocytes fertilized by Fatu developed into a viable embryo, which is now stored in liquid nitrogen together with the two embryos generated by last August's procedure. Now the scientists will have to select a group of white rhinos from the South, from which to identify a surrogate mother for the embryo of the white rhinoceros from the North. Najib Balala, Secretary of Cabinet of the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife of Kenya, speaks of "a great victory for Kenya and its partners, as the northern white rhinos face the threat of imminent extinction.
Partner in the project called "Biorescue", the Italian University of Padua.
"This is a delicate process, and for this we thank the stakeholders, the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Conservancy Ol Pejeta, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, the Avantea Laboratory and the Dvur Králové Zoo, for doing everything possible to ensure that endangered species do not disappear from the planet under our supervision. I urge scientists to continue to dig deeper into technology and innovation to ensure that not only this species is not extinct, but also other species facing similar threats. The fact that Kenya is at the heart of this scientific breakthrough also makes me very proud. It is amazing to see that we will be able to reverse the tragic loss of this subspecies through science.