The world's first white rhino in vitro fertilization embryo transplantation is successful, hoping to save the only two remaining northern white rhinos

internationalityResearchers of the "Biological Rescue" project recently announced that they successfully performed the world's first white rhino in vitro fertilization embryo transplantation.According to reports, the research team transplanted two southern white rhino embryos into the southern white rhino Kula. The oocytes used to produce the embryos were taken from the Belgian southern white rhino Eleanor, and the sperm used for fertilization came from the Austrian male Athos.

Oocytes from Eleanor were fertilized in vitro via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and developed into blastocysts in a laboratory in Cremona, Italy.

It is understood that the "Biological Rescue" team has performed 13 embryo transplants on rhinos.Although embryo transfer is a widely used technique in domestic species, it has never been tried in rhinos, and scientists have spent decades working on it.

Currently, there are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, female Najin and her daughter Fatu. However, there are also living cells from 12 northern white rhinos that are stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius.

Researchers plan to implant northern white rhino embryos into southern white rhinos from May to June this year.However, due to the 16-month gestation period, the world's first test-tube northern white rhinoceros may not be born for more than a year at the earliest.