Egg cell harvest from Rhino Iman in progress in Tabin Wildlife Reserve yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: One oocyte (egg cell) was successfully harvested from Malaysia’s last living female Sumatran rhinoceros, Iman, yesterday morning in Tabin Wildlife Reserve.
It was taken to the Reproductive Innovation Center for Wildlife and Livestock at Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Sandakan.
The extraction was performed by Professor Thomas Hildebrandt and his team from Leibniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, in collaboration with the local Borneo Rhino Alliance team, while preparation and maturation of the oocyte is being handled by Professor Arief Boediono of the Bogor Agriculture University, Indonesia.
“This is great news, it would have been even nicer with more oocytes, but this does allow us to continue with the programme to try to make in vitro embryos of this critically endangered species,” said Augustine Tuuga, director of Sabah Wildlife Department.
“Professor Arief will be using thawed frozen sperm from Tam, who died in May this year of renal failure, for the in vitro fertilization attempt. We remain ready to collaborate with Indonesia for further attempts,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Professor Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Dean of the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture added, “the Reproductive Innovation Center is now open for use, and I am pleased that this in vitro attempt will be made here.
There are simply not enough wild Sumatran rhinos left alive to save the species. Advanced reproductive technology can ensure that the living genomes of those rhinos are kept alive long after their deaths.
“This attempt in Sabah is great but yet another wasted opportunity – if Indonesia had agreed to provide fresh semen from one of their three young males, the chance of success this time would have been greater,” said Dr J Payne.