United Arab Emirates (UAE) is currently competing for becoming an IVF headquarter after releasing the grand news about their IVF attained camel. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a UAE billionaire wanted to keep the camel racing sector active after its champion Shaheen retired.
Mohammed bin came up with an idea of retrieving Shaheen’s sperm because he wanted to preserve the genes of the best race camels in UAE. This led to this project that began in 2014 sperm after samples were collected, frozen and later thawed.
Bint Shaheen was born at the Dubai Camel Breeding centre, on a Friday after the mother had conceived artificially. The used Frozen sperm had been kept for a year and one month after it had been collected from the retired champion- Shaheen
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad, a vet doctor who worked on this entire project, said that Bint Shaheen was normally delivered, weighing 30kg which is ideally good. The baby camel has a strong structure and when upright, she stands a little over three feet.
In case the baby camel grows up to be like her father, the camel racing industry embrace itself.
The trend of using IVF to conserve endangered animal species around the world is gaining more popularity since the early 1990s. Results from these projects were realised in the 50s as numerous animals such as rabbits, cows, and puppies were conceived through IVF.
In 2017, scientists collected nine eggs from rhinos at Longleat Safari Park since the females had failed to mate with the only male. The samples were sent to Italy a move conducted to save the white rhinos.
With more research and expertise, scientists also believe that they can retrieve sperms and eggs, fertilize them and then transfer them to a surrogate.
The success of IVF in domestic animals gives more hope to the fertility experts.