His Majesty names IVF fawn 'Rohisrat'
His Majesty the King has graciously bestowed on the world's first browantlered deer produced via invitro fertilisation the name "Rohisrat", meaning "Crystal Eld's Deer".
“We have asked His Majesty to name this Eld’s deer, the first of its species to have been born from IVF,” General Pattarin Leelayuth, acting director of the Zoological Park Organisation of Thailand, said yesterday.
The ZPO, Chulalongkorn and Kasetsart universities, and the US’ Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute jointly conducted the IVF procedures for Eld’s deer in captivity.
The Eld’s deer is one of Thailand’s 15 protected wildlife species. During the past 50 years, they have disappeared from the wild.
“There are just about 70 Eld’s deers in zoos and facilities of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation,” Pattarin said.
Because the natural reproduction rate of Eld’s deer is low, researchers have tried to assist with the IVF method.
“Our first attempt to implant embryos in surrogate Eld’sdeer mothers was on March 31, 2010. However, the embryos died during pregnancy soon afterwards,” he said.
Success came with the second attempt in February last year. Of eight surrogate mothers, one gave birth to Rohisrat on October 17 at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo.
“Now, the fawn is about seven months old. It’s going to be a focus for further research on IVF Elds’deer reproduction,” he said.