ABOUT THE BIORESCUE TEAM SAVING THE NORTHERN WHITE RHINO
We are in the midst of the Earth’s sixth great extinction event, which is driven by mankind. Traditional conservation strategies such as habitat protection and ex-situ breeding combined with reintroduction programs will not be sufficient to stop or even to significantly slow down this process.
Currently, more than 20 % of the mammals are at risk of extinction. The family Rhinocerotidae is particularly affected, with three of the five extant species listed as critically endangered (Sumatran, Javan, and black rhinoceros), one listed as vulnerable (greater one-horned rhinoceros), and only one, the southern white rhinoceros, listed as near threatened.
In contrast to its southern cousin, the northern white rhinoceros (NWR) is regarded by IUCN as possibly extinct in the wild. On March 19, 2018, the death of the last male NWR, Sudan, brought wide public attention to the fate of this subspecies and served as a clear call for alternative measures of conservation.
In 2015, a group of 20 international scientists from five continents met in Vienna to develop a new strategic roadmap for saving the critically endangered NWR. The new approach combines advanced assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and stem cell associated techniques (SCAT). This combined third strategy, in addition to the two established main strategies of habitat protection and classical ex-situ conservation programs, allows for the employment of biomaterial from live and deceased individuals in the form of cryopreserved gametes as well as of skin samples for fibroblast cultures.
Fibroblast cultures via induced pluripotent stem cell transformation can subsequently be used for the in vitro production of artificial gametes. This third way of species protection is now being developed by the international team called BioRescue and put into practice immediately.
The team consists of experts from all around the world. The team members highly appreciate the help of many colleagues and supporters all around the world.
GERMANY
Leibniz-IZW Berlin
Max Delbrück Center
for Molecular Medicine
CZECH REPUBLIC
Safari Park Dvůr Králové
ITALY
Avantea Cremona
Padua University
JAPAN
Ósaka University
KENYA
Kenya Wildlfe Service
Wildlife Research
and Training Institute
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
The work of the team is aimed at the development of suitable technologies and protocols to rescue the NWR and to provide the opportunity to establish a self-sustaining, genetically healthy NWR population which can be reintroduced to the wild.
In addition to the two approaches to embryo production, an ethical risk analysis of every step is part of the project. If innovative research shifts the boundaries of what is possible in species protection, new risks that have not yet been adequately evaluated emerge on the one hand, and ethical questions on the other, which will bring together the well-being of individuals, the prosperity of an entire subspecies and complex social-ecological questions.
These new risks and ethical questions are systematically analysed and discussed in the "BioRescue" project, which also involves relevant stakeholders and the interested public in the discourse.