[wordup] Species rescue program faces extinction

[Adam Shand]

One of the good points from /. commentary is that there are other places
that are having the exact same problem.  This isn't just an Australian
problem.

Via: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/04/1636230&mode=flat
From: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0202/05/national/national14.html

Species rescue program faces extinction
By Tom Noble

A program that saves the genetic material of threatened animal species
faces a bleak future because of a lack of money.

The Gene Bank at the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development has
material from thousands of animals in storage, mostly native species
facing extinction.

But work on storing new specimens and developing cloning techniques that
could mean the survival of some species has been slowed because of no
direct funding and little interest from corporate or private sponsors.

"I think it does say a little about our priorities, which I think is sad,"
said Alan Trounson, IVF pioneer and deputy director of the research
institute that is a world leader in IVF and stem cell work.

"I don't know how many boardrooms we've been in, how many people we've
seen ... we always get a good hearing, but not the support financially."

A key project has been on the northern hairy-nosed wombat, which once
roamed across large areas of Victoria, Queensland and NSW. It is now
Australia's most endangered mammal with fewer than 100 remaining, confined
to a small area of the Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland.

The wombat's only hope of survival may lie in a silver barrel at the Gene
Bank, where cell lines from more than 40 of the wombats (grown from little
bits of flesh when the animals were given ear-tags) sit cryogenically
frozen, ready to be cloned when the technology becomes available.

Set up in 1996 with a Federal Government grant and corporate sponsorship,
the Gene Bank - dubbed a Noah's Ark of endangered animals - began by
storing sperm and eggs taken from endangered animals that had died, often
in zoos. The advent of cloning meant any part of the animal would do, as
long as cell lines could be grown.

The cells of thousands of animals - mostly natives, but other endangered
species such as the African black rhino - from dozens of species are now
stored.

A modest amount of money has allowed the Gene Bank to survive, diverted
from other institute programs. "It's been put into neutral for the time
being," said Professor Trounson.

Requests from NSW authorities to store native fish taken during a
clean-out of rivers, as well as an oyster species threatened by pollution
and disease, cannot be met.

The Gene Bank, the only one of its type in Australia, has lost its
technician and the laboratories used for the program face being taken over
by a well-funded program on cattle breeding.

"You can't create biodiversity. But it's something you can lose," says
Professor Trounson. "Every animal we lose that doesn't have a common close
relative is a big problem. It's something you can never get back."

Since European settlement, at least 19 animal, 20 bird and three amphibian
species have become extinct in Australia. Hundreds of species are now
regarded as threatened.

"The community don't seem to care really deeply about biodiversity because
they are not facing it every day. But it's a big concern among
naturalists, conservationists and scientists. There's a decimation of
these species."