There seems to have been a slight technical glitch in the system, so
a couple of my messages didn't get through. I'm resending them now,
and I apologize to anyone who receives double copies.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Hi ECOFEMers!
I found this Reuter's piece on another list, and I thought it might
be of interest to some of you. The ability to alter (manipulate?)
genes as well as (simply!) recreate them has many implications,
including the (potential) minimization of species extinction.
BUT...will such techno-fixes serve to create an ecologically stable
world? An ethical world? How will such scientific trends alter
"nature"? What sorts of questions and issues might this raise from
"women and environment", "ecofeminist", and/or "gender and
environment" perspective? Just a bit of food for
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
This was published by Reuter's on March 15.
BEIJING (Reuter) - The world's first test-tube panda could be born by
the year 2001 in a longed-for breakthrough to save China's endangered
national animal, a senior researcher said Friday.
China's panda experts, battling hunters, shortages of its favorite arrow
bamboo and the animal's poor reproductive capability, have already
successfully bred some cubs through artificial insemination.
The next step is a test-tube panda, and 14 professors, researchers and
experienced veterinarians are involved in the project in central Sichuan
province, a major panda habitat, the Xinhua news agency said.
The world's first test-tube panda could be born in a laboratory within
five years, it quoted Zhang Anju, head of the research group and chairman of
the China Panda Breeding Technology Committee, as saying.
Researchers will try to acquire an ovary from a dead panda, from which
egg cells are to be extracted and put into a culture, explained Zhang, a
deputy to the annual session of the National People's Congress, or
parliament, in Beijing.
When an egg cell matures, it will be nurtured together with a panda's
sperm to complete external fertilization and the zygote will be nurtured in a
test tube until an embryo forms, he said.
The embryo will be frozen, awaiting a suitable panda womb into which it
can be transplanted, he said.
``We are striving to start experiments with transplanting such an embryo
into a panda's womb in the year 1999,'' Zhang said.
In 1980, Zhang achieved a first when he successfully used frozen semen to
artificially inseminate and breed a giant panda.
In the first 25 years of China's program of artificial insemination,
launched in 1963, a total of 93 pandas were born and 23 survived -- just 30
percent.
However, another 47 cubs were born through artificial insemination in the
five years from 1988 to 1994, of which 33 survived -- a success rate of 70
percent, official figures show.
The panda's poor procreative powers are the biggest threat to the
species' survival, Chinese experts said.
Male pandas with natural mating capabilities account only for no more
than 10 percent of pandas in captivity, while less than 30 percent of female
pandas ovulate naturally, Zhang said.
Chinese scientists were preparing for the test-tube project with
extensive studies into the panda's reproductive system, hormones, artificial
semen extraction and insemination, the article said.
China has earmarked $360,000 under its 1996-2000 Five-year Plan
(1996-2000) for panda studies, Xinhua said.
China has a count of 1,000 pandas living in bamboo-rich southwestern
provinces, but their numbers are believed to be declining as their natural
habitat is whittled away by man.
11:01 03-15-96
************************************
Stefanie S. Rixecker
Centre for Resource Management/
Department of Resource Management
Lincoln University
Canterbury
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: (64) (03) 325-2811 x8377
Fax: (64) (03) 325-3841
************************************
============== End part 2 ============================
************************************
Stefanie S. Rixecker
Centre for Resource Management/
Department of Resource Management
Lincoln University
Canterbury
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: (64) (03) 325-2811 x8377
Fax: (64) (03) 325-3841
************************************
