Endangered Species Programme. (4 November, 1996)

A dynamic 'rescue and recycle' partnership to save African fauna threatened with extinction or inbreeding has been launched. Mondi Recycling, a division of Mondi Ltd, and a working group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) have joined forces in this venture.

To launch the new partnership, Mondi recycling has boosted the Wildlife Breeding Research Centre (WBRC) Programme with an initial contribution of R31 000 which will aid research into Assisted Reproduction Techniques in order to maintain genetic diversity and demographic stability in threatened species. The WBRC, an EWT working group initiated in 1994, collects viable genetic material such as ova and sperm from live animals and ovaries and testes from recently dead specimens for in-vitro fertilisation (test-tube fertilisation) and artificial insemination. The 'test-tube' embryos, developed from sperm and ova in the WBRC laboratory at Pelindaba are stored in nitrogen genome resource banks until suitable surrogate mothers are found.

According to Mr Bob Hunt, General Manager of Mondi Recycling, a continuous loss of genetic diversity is threatening many species throughout the world. 'In southern Africa, the number of certain species - such as cheetah, wild dog and black rhino - have dropped to dangerously low levels and are threatened with extinction if we do no do everything possible to expand their gene pools,' says Mr Hunt.

Gametes, which would otherwise be wasted, are collected from both live and dead animals. Sperm is collected from the live animals by means of electro-ejaculation and ova are collected from females by Pieultrasound pick-up techniques. 'Dead animals of an endangered species can help sustain the entire species' genetic diversity long after death - the loss of the individual animal is no longer such a disaster for the survival of its species,' says Dr Paul Bartels, veterinarian and director of the WBRC. Courtesy of VetNews.