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GS Paper - 3 General Science

Why in the news?

• Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough by successfully inducing the first-ever pregnancy in a rhino using a lab-made embryo.
• The procedure involved transferring the artificial rhino embryo into a surrogate mother, marking a significant milestone in reproductive science.

In vitro fertilization of White rhinos

• Scientists from the international group BioRescue have accomplished the first rhino pregnancy through in vitro fertilization (IVF) by placing a lab-created rhino embryo into a surrogate mother.
  
  
• The achievement involved using embryos from southern white rhinos, and the scientists plan to duplicate this success with embryos from northern white rhinos.
  
  
• The project, spearheaded by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), received funding from the German government and various public and private contributors.

What was the necessity of Surrogacy?

• Surrogacy was necessary for northern white rhinos in Kenya in 2009 due to the inability of the two females, Najin and Fatu, to reproduce for pathological reasons.
• The two males, Suni and Sudan, had died which made natural breeding impossible.
• IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) was the only viable method for producing a northern white rhino calf.
• The southern white rhino was chosen as the ideal surrogate mother for the northern white rhino embryo.
• The surrogate had to be isolated and protected from bacterial infections during the surrogacy process.
• To identify the fertile window for implanting the embryo, a sterilized and scrubbed bull, known as a "teaser," was used.
• The teaser bull triggered the formation of hormones favorable for embryo implantation, facilitating the success of the surrogacy process.

Challenges of the Method

• The embryos used for the white rhino project come from eggs of two females and sperm from deceased males. This might make it hard to create a healthy and diverse gene pool for the northern white rhino.
  
  
• The process to make white rhino babies through surrogacy and IVF is very complicated. 
• If certain steps, like finding the right time for implantation and preventing infections, aren't done well, it could affect the success of the process.
  

• Female white rhinos have trouble getting pregnant that can make it challenging to get enough samples for the project.
  
  
• The project is very costly. 
  
  
• Some people think it might be better to use the resources for different species instead of just focusing on the northern white rhino project.
  
  
• The project hasn't done enough to deal with problems in the natural habitat of white rhinos. 
• This could be a problem in the future and might even lead to extinction.