Combating coronavirus: Covid-19 stalls work to keep alive a rare rhino subspecies

Nanyuki, Kenya - As of January, three embryos had been created and stored in liquid nitrogen. But further key steps now have to wait.

It's not quite a case of coitus interruptus, but efforts to create a very special baby are definitely on hold. Blame the pandemic.
Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies - population, two - by in-vitro fertilization has been stalled by travel restrictions. And time is running out.
The two northern white rhinos are female. The goal is to create viable embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs with frozen sperm from dead males, then transfer them into a surrogate mother, a more common southern white rhino.
As of January, three embryos had been created and stored in liquid nitrogen. But further key steps now have to wait.
"It has been disrupted by Covid-19, like everything else," said Richard Vigne, managing director of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, home of the two remaining rhinos. "That is, the process of collecting more eggs from the females as well as the process of developing the technique to introduce the northern white rhino embryo into the southern white rhino females."
It's an international effort that includes conservationists from Kenya, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy - many affected by closed borders or restricted travel.
For those involved in the effort, acutely aware of time, the delay can be painful. The procedure to create viable embryos has proven to be safe, they say, and can be performed regularly before the animals become too old.
In January, the transfer of the embryos to surrogates had been planned for the coming months. In March, the plan had been to collect another round of eggs from the two remaining females.
Because those eggs are limited, scientists are working with embryos from southern white rhinos until they can establish a successful pregnancy. Seven or eight transfers so far have failed to take hold. A receptive female is needed, along with the knowledge of exactly when she ovulates.
"We know time is working against us," said Cesare Galli, an in-vitro fertilization expert based in Italy. "The females will age and we don't have many to choose from."
He hopes restrictions on international travel will loosen in the coming weeks so key steps can resume in August. "The problem is quite serious," he said. "Certainly as soon as international travel is resumed, it will be the first priority to go" to Kenya and collect more eggs from the two females.
Even when travel can resume, another problem looms. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy also is home to primates - non-human primates - which are susceptible to the coronavirus, Galli said.
"If you bring in the virus accidentally, it's an additional risk," he said. "You threaten one species to save another."
So for now, the two northern white rhinos wait. Fatu and her mother, Najin, roam and graze within sight of rangers in the company of one intended surrogate mother, a southern white rhino named Tewa.
One of the rhinos' keepers, Zachariah Mutai, was sympathetic.
"They won't have a chance anymore to have babies in a natural way, but the only hope is to save them with the scientific way," he said.
The ultimate goal is to create a herd of at least five animals that could be returned to their natural habitat in Africa. That could take decades.
Decades of poaching have taken a heavy toll on rhino species. The animals are killed for their horns, which have long been used as carving material and prized in traditional Chinese medicine for their supposed healing properties.
The last male northern white rhino was a 45-year-old named Sudan, who gained fame in 2017 when he was listed as "The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World" on the Tinder dating app as part of a fundraising effort. He was euthanized in 2018 because of age-related ills.
This effort to keep the northern white rhino subspecies alive has been a good way to draw the world's attention to the issue of extinction, Vigne said.
"The rate of extinction of species on this planet is now the fastest that has ever been recorded, much faster than the rate dinosaurs went extinct, and that is as a result of human activity," he said. "So there comes a time where we have to draw a line . and say no more."
Criticism of the government is rare in Qatar and laws prohibit disrespect towards officials.
However, officials have said that the law on the app will be enforced with "understanding".
The app's simple interface displays coloured bar-codes containing the user's ID number - green for healthy, red for COVID-19 positive and yellow for quarantined cases. Grey indicates suspected cases or those who have come into contact with infected individuals.
Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, a director at Qatar's health ministry, said that data gathered is "completely confidential".
"There will be an update for the Ehteraz app to address the issues of concern and further improve its efficiency," he added in an interview on state television on Thursday.
A new version of the software was duly released for Apple and Android on Sunday, promising "minor bug fixes", but without indicating that the invasive aspects had been removed.
The app was introduced just as authorities across the Muslim world warned that gatherings during Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the holy fasting month could lead to a surge of infections.
"There are two key concerns... with the app," said Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin.
It "is highly invasive, with a range of permissions allowing the government access to things that are not needed for the purpose of contact tracing, permissions that are unnecessary and present a concerning invasion of privacy."
But also "many migrant workers in the country don't have compatible phones that would allow them to download the app and comply".
Online reviews have also complained that the app drains battery power and cannot be installed on older iPhone handsets.
Some have looked for ways around the policy.
"People are spending money and waiting in queues just to get burner phones to protect their privacy," wrote expat engineer Janko on one forum, referring to cheap handsets that could subsequently be disposed of.
There have been reports of a few users being wrongly classified as "quarantined" or "suspected cases".
"There's no need for photo access and other things. But it could be a good tool. It is a good way to prioritise whom to test," technology lawyer Rahul Matthan told AFP.
But "to work, they need a large number of people to use it. If people are dissuaded because of the app's overreach, then that would be a worry."