Australian scientists produce kangaroo embryos using IVF for first time Team has produced more than 20 embryos using method used in humans, though there are no plans for live joeys.
Australian researchers at the University of Queensland made the eastern grey kangaroo embryos using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique widely used in human IVF, in which a sperm is injected into a mature egg.
The team had produced more than 20 embryos using ICSI to date, he said, collecting sperm and egg cells from kangaroos that had recently died at wildlife hospitals.
He said IVF would not be a silver bullet for protecting endangered species against extinction, but “just one more tool in our conservation toolkit”, alongside strategies like population monitoring, breeding management and habitat protection.
The marsupial reproduction expert John Rodger, an emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle, who was not involved in the study, said the researchers “for the first time, with a marsupial, have demonstrated what looks to be really promising progress” in IVF.
