- Title: ARGENTINA: BUENOS AIRES ZOO INTRODUCES ANIMALS BORN BY ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
- Date: 28th November 2003
- Summary: (L!1) BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (NOVEMBER 28, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LAMBS BORN BY ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION AND ADULT SHEEP PEOPLE LOOKING ON/ LAMBS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARC (ASSISTANCE TO THE CONSERVATION AND REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS) HEAD LUIS JACOME, SAYING: "These three Mouflon sheep are the first wild animals to be born by artificial insemination in the Buenos Aires zoo. They're also the first wild non-commercial animals to be born in any Argentine zoo. And, in the case of the Mouflons, it's the first time that young are obtained through artificial insemination with genetic material that was cryogenically-frozen for two years for this species worldwide." CONSERVATION PROJECT MEMBERS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH LABORATORY WORKERS HANDLING FROZEN SEMEN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARC (ASSISTANCE TO THE CONSERVATION AND REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS) HEAD LUIS JACOME, SAYING: "ARC didn't create a boat to warehouse biodiversity, but it protected biodiversity through tanks of liquid nitrogen of those species that are in the process of extinction because we know the extinction process is very accelerated, very fast." VARIOUS OF LABORATORY WORKERS AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VETERINARIAN GONZALO MARECO, SAYING; "This semen can be used in 20 or 50 years when none of us is here anymore. That's the recourse; that's the arc; it has the conserved animals. What we're demonstrating is that many years later, we can make live and viable animals be born from animals that no longer exist." VARIOUS OF MOUFLONS IN ZOO
- Embargoed: 13th December 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- City:
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA60I3HY789A2N3SLZWBW85DTKV
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Argentine zoo introduces animals born by artificial insemination.
The Buenos Aires zoo introduced its latest addition to the world on Friday (November 28). The three lambs were the first animals born by artificial insemination at the zoo as part of its conservation efforts.
The 4-day-old Mouflon lambs (ovis musimon) were born to zoo sheep that had been artificially inseminated with sheep semen that had been frozen at 196 degrees centigrade for two years.
The conservation project was headed by a group called ARC (Spanish acronym for Assistance to the Conservation and Reproduction of Animals) that intends to reproduce the idea of the Biblical Noah's arc in a laboratory.
"ARC didn't create a boat to warehouse biodiversity,"
said ARC head Luis Jacome, "but it protected biodiversity through tanks of liquid nitrogen of those species that are in the process of extinction because we know the extinction process is very accelerated, very fast."
Jacome said the project has frozen semen of over 40 wild species, most of which are in danger of extinction, including native deer, mountain cat and jaguar.
Argentina's population of Mouflon sheep, a wild sheep with large horns and a reddish-brown coat, has been diminished because of hunters.
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