Advertisement

Farmers urged to loan rare cows for 'embryo ark' to protect Britain's dying breeds

Irish Moiled are endangered  - RBST
Irish Moiled are endangered - RBST

Farmers have been urged to loan their rare breeds of cow to a conservation charity so they can grow embryos through IVF and create an ‘ark’ of endangered British cattle.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust has been building a genetic bank since the 1970s, but new technology is now also allowing them to store animal embryos, which could be implanted if a species becomes extinct.

Now they are looking for farmers to loan breeds including Albion, Native Aberdeen Angus, Irish Moiled, Traditional Hereford and White Park.

There are fewer than than 1500 of each species left, and for some critically endangered breeds, like the Albion there are just 170 animals remaining.

RBST Field Officer Richard Broad said:  “The underlying reason for creating the Gene Bank was to ensure that, given the worst-case scenario of total loss of a breed, we would have sufficient genetics in store to recreate that breed.

“Originally, the only way to do this was to collect semen.  However, science has made enormous strides and it has become both financially and scientifically viable to collect and freeze embryos.”

There are fewer 250 Native Aberdeen Angus cows left  - Credit: RBST
There are fewer 250 Native Aberdeen Angus cows left Credit: RBST

There RBST has also launched an appeal for funding to carry out the work.  For a full Gene Bank collection we require eight embryos. Each full collection costs in the region of £3,200.

Scientists are currently attempting to map the genetic code of all 1.5 million known species of animals, plants and fungi living on Earth to help species from extinction.

In a multi-billion pound collaboration involving scientific institutes from around the globe the genomes of all eukaryotic species - organisms with complex cell structures - will be sequenced to learn more about their biology.

It could also help bring them back from the dead if they do go extinct. Scientists are already attempting to use the stored DNA from the northern white rhino to restore the species, which became functionally extinct earlier this year with the death of the last male.

In Britain, organisations including the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Wellcome Sanger Institute have joined forces to sequence Britain’s 66,000 species of animals, plants, protozoa and fungi.

Dubbed the Darwin Tree of Life Project it is expected to take ten years and cost £100 million. Once completed all the information will be publically available to researchers.