Equine reproduction technology helps biobank for endangered animals
Cutting-edge horse breeding expertise has led to the launch of a ground-breaking charity for endangered species preservation. Nature’s SAFE, Europe’s first dedicated living biobank for endangered animals, aims to halt the catastrophic decline in global biodiversity.
Europe’s first “living biobank” dedicated to preserving endangered animals aims to harness regeneration and reproductive technologies developed via domestic animal breeding to save wild animals from extinction.
The registered charity Nature’s Safe will process and store live skin, reproductive cells, and tissues from endangered species, so that the materials can be used to facilitate animal regeneration and species restoration.
“We are in the sixth mass extinction; the largest predicted loss of living biodiversity in 65 million years,” said Tullis Matson, founder and chairperson of Nature’s SAFE and owner and managing director of Stallion AI Services, a UK-based center for equine reproduction. “More than one million of the world’s species are threatened with extinction, largely as a result of the actions of humanity.”
With the state of Nature’s continual decline, Tullis realized that techniques developed for the equine industry could be adapted for use in conservation by storing live cells from endangered animal species. This led to the foundation of Nature’s SAFE as a means of safely storing vital genetic samples that would otherwise be lost forever.
Nature’s SAFE is working in collaboration with Chester Zoo and The Rhino Fertility Project at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and is supported by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Biobank.
The charity uses cryopreservation media to indefinitely store live skin cells from threatened species. Following a specialized processing technique, the skin cells are frozen at a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius, at which point they are preserved in a dormant state and can be kept indefinitely.
When thawed, the cells retain their ability to ‘wake up’ and regenerate, enabling their use in animal artificial reproduction programs. Nature’s SAFE will also store ovarian and testicular tissue from endangered animals. Additional plans include the development of techniques to generate sperm and egg cells from reproductive tissue.
“To be able to use 30 years of experience in equine reproduction and equine rare breed preservation for an even greater good is a real privilege,” said Tullis. “It is an honor to be working with some of the world’s most endangered species and knowing that we are saving such important animals is indescribable.
“We are very thankful to everyone who has helped us get to this point, but this is just the beginning and we know the real hard work is yet to come. Nature’s SAFE is just one small part of the larger puzzle to prevent biodiversity loss, but we truly believe we can make a huge difference to worldwide efforts to fight extinction,” concluded Tullis.
Nature’s SAFE aims to cryopreserve reproductive cells and cell lines from at least 50 different animals from each species at risk of extinction to ensure species survival into the future.
Dr Sue Walker, Nature’s SAFE Co-Founder and Vice Chair, said: “Having a facility solely dedicated to preserving these samples, Nature’s SAFE is a vital tool missing from the European zoo conservation toolbox,” she added. Walker is also head of science at Chester Zoo, chair of the EAZA Reproductive Management Group and board member of the EAZA Biobank.
Working with their partners within zoos, Nature’s SAFE has already successfully stored live cells from a number of endangered species including the Black Rhino, Asian Elephant, Eastern Bongo and Javan Green Magpie, with very promising post-thaw results.
“Here at Ol Pejeta Conservancy we are at the forefront of conservation, with the last two remaining Northern White Rhinos on the planet resident on our conservancy,” said Richard Vigne, CEO of Ol Pejeta Conservancy. “We recognize the importance of new technologies to help prevent threatened wildlife from becoming extinct. In our view, Nature’s SAFE plays a crucial role in the global preservation of threatened species. The technology they can provide is one of the missing links in helping protect the biodiversity of our planet.”
Nature’s SAFE urges anyone interested in donating to and supporting their work to contact the charity. Full contact details are available via their website https://www.natures-safe.com/ .
US journalist Fran Jurga is known as just “Fran from America” in many corners of the world, especially wherever horses are bred, raced, shown, ridden, driven, and loved. She has written more than 1,400 print and online articles for Equus Magazine, especially through “The Jurga Report”, her blog for Equus. Fran’s Hoof Blog hosts more than 1,800 of Fran’s news articles detailing the art and science of hoofcare for horses.
