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There are a little over 1,000 Mountain Gorillas remaining on Earth, with about half of these living in Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest. (Credit: Fredrick Mugira)

A UNESCO world heritage site, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was gazetted as a game sanctuary in 1932 purposely to conserve the Mountain Gorillas.

CONSERVATION

In the shadows of giant trees, deep within the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, nature is at its rawest. The maze of green trees, dark and humid undergrowth shrouded in a smoky haze, makes its name impenetrable forest' very apt.

This is where Jackson Kyomukama, 46, spent the first 17 years of his life. An indigenous Batwa pygmy forest dweller, he lived in caves and tree branches, just like his ancestors.

"We derived our livelihood from the forest," recounts Kyomukama, whose ancestors were part of the ecosystem for Bwindi Impenetrable, Echuya, and Mgahinga rainforests in southwestern Uganda.

Also known as the Twa or the Pygmies, Batwa is one of the oldest surviving tribes in central Africa, living mostly within or close to the Congo Basin rainforest, the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world. They are part of about 60 million people living within this tropical rainforest that occupies about 200 million hectares of land.

But for the Batwa that lived in Bwindi Impenetrable, Echuya, and Mgahinga rainforests, their nomadic-like lifestyle - moving from place to place in search of forest resources, hunting wild animals and collecting honey - was cut short in 1991. The government of Uganda evicted them from these rainforests to pave the way to create conservation areas for the endangered Mountain Gorillas.

"Our lives were divorced from the forests by gorillas; we are struggling to live," narrates Kyomukama, a father of 10, and chairperson of Karehe Batwa group in Buhoma, Bwindi.

Only some 1,063 Mountain Gorillas remaining on Earth (2018 mountain gorillas survey) live in three countries: Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Half of these live within Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest.

A UNESCO world heritage site, the forest was gazetted as a game sanctuary in 1932 purposely to conserve the Mountain Gorillas. The Ugandan government later upgraded it to national park status in 1991. It is home to over 160 species of trees, 100 species of ferns, 120 mammals, and some 350 bird species.

Jonathan Baranga, a professor of zoology and wildlife, also former director of Uganda National Parks (now Uganda Wildlife Authority), is one of the officials who campaigned for raising the conservation status of Bwindi.

He recounts that before the elevation, "people were busy mining gold and wolfram within the area and cutting down trees for timber, which was damaging the habitats of gorillas."

Fortress conservation

The approach used to conserve Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and several other forests worldwide has been described by researchers and advocates of indigenous people as "fortress conservation" and criticized for its adverse effects on the indigenous people.

The fortress conservation model involves creating protected areas to enable ecosystems to flourish in isolation from human disturbance.

Conserving Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for gorillas meant human activities in the forest had to be minimized; the reason why the status of the forest changed from multiple use of the resource to nature conservation.

And in nature conservation, argues Jeconeous Musingwire, an environmental scientist and manager for the national environment watchdog - NEMA in southwestern Uganda, "there is no human activity".

"Whenever there is an icon of biodiversity, which needs to be conserved, then it means human activities are minimized," he says.

Gorillas needed a quiet environment to flourish and reproduce. Regular contact with humans puts them at a significant risk because of their genetic similarity with humans, making them susceptible to diseases that affect humans.

"Humans share with gorillas over 98 percent genetic materials and can easily make each other sick," reveals Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, a wildlife veterinarian and founder of Conservation Through Public Health.

The eviction from their ancestral lands has caused suffering in all measures - not to put it too expansive - to all 6,200 Batwa (2014 Uganda Population and Housing Census) in Uganda who now live on donated land in the margins of theirancestral forests, surviving on the charity of sympathizers.

For most of them, hopelessness defines their lives.

"Removing indigenous people from their land is unfortunately a consequence of so-called fortress conservation whose time is long past," argues Nicole Wendee, founder and director for Redemption Song Foundation, an organisation that supports Batwa in Bwindi.

"They (Batwa) can't go in and gather materials to make baskets. They can't get food like honey and medicinal plants," she laments.

Conservation triumphs

After almost 30 years of fortress conservation, more plants, mammals and birds are returning to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. And the Mountain Gorillas are no longer critically endangered.

In 2018, the then critically endangered Mountain Gorillas were down-listed on the IUCN Red List to endangered species after their population increased from 680 in 2008 to 1,004 in 2018. And more are being born.

"Ten gorilla babies were born during the COVID-19 lockdown (March to June 2020)," says Bashir Hangi, the communications manager for Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), who adds that "protection of gorillas is a matter of imperative."

Haven't the Mountain Gorillas made Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which in turn made them at the expense of the indigenous Batwa? Did the Gorillas steal the guardianship of Bwindi from the Batwa? And have they maintained it?

Stuart Maniraguha, the director for plantations development at National Forestry Authority (NFA), knows the answers.

He says the approach taken by the government of Uganda facilitated the creation of an environment for the gorillas to flourish, to reproduce, and contribute to the restoration of Bwindi.

"Conserving gorillas in a way contributes to conservation of the forest," says Maniraguha, elaborating that "when trees are missing, the gorillas will not be there because you have deprived them of their home () their food sources () and their privacy, and therefore they will not mate and their reproduction will go down."

He further relates that "there are some tree species whose seeds may not germinate unless they have gone through the alimentary canal of animals [gorillas in this case]."

But Maniraguha acknowledges the fact that apart from the gorillas, several other factors have helped to preserve Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and mitigate the impacts of forest loss. These include afforestation in neighboring communities, benefits sharing and stakeholder engagement.

In Uganda, like in many tropical countries, rainforests are subject to increased changes. Increased population, industrialization, road construction, urbanization, commercial agriculture, and changing climate are shrinking the once-blooming forests.

For example, in the Hoima district, a sugar factory has been blamed for deforesting part of the Bugoma Central Forest Reserve to grow sugarcane to produce sugar.

However, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and some other protected forests have continued to bloom amid such threats, according to Maniraguha.

He states that in 1990, Uganda had a 24% forest cover, with protected forests accounting for 30% and the remaining 70% outside protected areas. And by 2015, Uganda's forest cover had shrunk to 9%.

But, "of the 9%, [in 2015] the area where we had 70 % [in 1991] had lost up to 35% [in 2015]. Where we had 30% in the protected areas [in 1991] now the forest cover goes to 65% [in 2015]," explains Maniraguha.

Some researchers keen on rainforests and indigenous people believe that Bwindi Impenetrable National Park's value is the presence of the Mountain Gorillas in particular and its biodiversity in general. And this has contributed to the maintenance and the care conservationists bestow to the park, according to Eliode Bakole, a Batwa and rainforests researcher and DR Congo country programme manager for IDEAS For Us (IDEAS).

"Gorillas were not evicted from the park, but the Batwa were," he says.

And emphasizes that this shows the "importance accorded to the animals (gorillas), which has been positive on the one hand for forest conservation and for generating revenues, but on the other hand, it has impacted on the Batwa."

What if the forest's status wasn't upgraded?

Prof. Jonathan Baranga, the architect of the move to upgrade Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to national park status, shudders thinking about what would have happened if the forest had not been upgraded.

"I know very many government officials and businessmen were not only selectively cutting Mahogany (trees) from Bwindi and other areas, but there was a lot of encroachment. There was a lot of gold mining," he says.

This is corroborated by a study that looked at regeneration in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and found that before 1991, many large trees were cut for timber by pit-sawyers.

One of the people who have lived close to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for over 80 years is Eliphaz Ahimbisibwe, who is 85 and lives in Buhoma, Bwindi.

He says as part of the programme for upgrading the status of the forest, neighboring communities were in the 1990s taught to plant their trees, and now they do not need to cross into the woods for firewood and timber.

Without this option, Ahimbisibwe believes, "the forest would be no more because people would have cut it down and the gorillas would not be there because people had by the 1960s started hunting them for various products."

But Amos Ngambeki, a father of four and a Mutwa of Buhoma in Bwindi, disagrees. He insists that amid increased intrusion of the outside world into indigenous people's communities and lives, Batwa people would still be guardians of Bwindi.

According to Ngambeki, with their "rich indigenous knowledge of conserving forests," coupled with "government empowerment," the Batwa would have been able to preserve Bwindi Impenetrable Forest up to now and in the years to come.

The weight of the knowledge indigenous people possess is enough to maintain the ecosystems more naturally and sustainably, according to Bakole, who underlines that the Batwa have experience in park management in their traditional ways.

"For instance, during my pilot study conducted in Nkuringo in Bwindi, a Mutwa man declared that they are not allowed to hunt or trap pregnant animals and/or babies. Whenever they fall into our traps, we have to release them."

According to Bakole, this idea is backed up by another Mutwa he interviewed in the Mikeno sector in DR Congo as he collected data for his Masters dissertation on Batwa.

Bakole cites what he was told, that according to "our culture, we cannot kill a gorilla because it resembles a human being, it resembles us". Basing on this statement and several others he gathered in the field, Bakole concludes that "the presence of Batwa in conservation matters because they understand well the dos and don'ts in biodiversity conservation".

According to studies by the World Resources Institute, deforestation levels are "2.8 times lower in tenure-secure" indigenous people's communities.

Dispossessed and damned lives

Although there may be increasing numbers of mammals, birds and tree species in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest as indeed there are several the Batwa people, who were once part of this ecosystem, haven't recovered from the effects of loss of their lands. They are concerned they still own no land, are slowly losing their culture and knowledge systems, and are living in abject poverty.

"We have no proof that the land we live on now is ours. We can be evicted again any time," says Gad Shemanjeeri, a Mutwa pygmy and executive director of Batwa Development Organisation in Echuya, Rubanda district.

And for Jackeline Musiime, a Mutwa and mother of four, all she wants is unrestricted access to the forest to pick medicinal herbs for her children. "We have no money to take them to hospital," she says.

Several Batwa in Uganda are losing the value of being called guardians of the rainforests. And it is easy to understand why: modern society is imposing on them a lot of hardships.

Take, for instance, Bakole's latest research conducted on Batwa of the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the questions in his study wanted to determine whether the current socio-economic conditions can pull Batwa to support the conservation efforts.

"Out of 87 Batwa interviewed, over 60 showed that they would never support conservation efforts because they are abandoned, marginalized, and sometimes arrested by rangers," says Bakole.

He further quotes one of the interviewees, as saying: "We are poor, we keep on begging and picking leftovers in other communities' gardens. How, then, will I conserve the biodiversity?"

The results of this study are still being analyzed.

Building effective partnerships

It is evident that the impoverished Batwa people in Uganda may turn into poachers of the resources they once protected unless issues such as lack of land, the repression over them, and the lack of involvement in the conservation efforts are fixed.

They are incapable of defending the forests, which were once their home and source of livelihood, against illegal encroachments and damaging exploitation.

Although they know they cannot be allowed back into the rainforests, the Batwa people demand "resettlement; benefits from the presence of gorillas and the park and active involvement" to facilitate conservation of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

This can then be coupled with tapping and preserving their traditional ecological knowledge and marrying it with the modern experience for the management of rainforests.

[Reporting for this article was funded by Pulitzer Center'sRainforest Journalism Fund(RJF)]

Link:
How Gorillas Stole A Ugandan Forest From Humans, Bloomed It As It Bloomed Them - New Vision

My own experience of over 60 years in biomedical research amply demonstrated that without the use of human beings, it would have been impossible to acquire the important knowledge needed to prevent much suffering and premature death among humans. Albert Sabin

Albert Sabin, the medical researcher best known for developing the oral polio vaccine, highlights the importance of biomedical research in his quotation mentioned above.

This importance has not diminished with time. The opposite is true. With the arrival of new diseases caused by viral infections, cancers, and other conditions such as kidney disease, the only way to improve human life and help people combat these diseases is through biomedical research.

While the COVID-19 illness caused by the zoonosis, SARS-CoV-2, is not directly related to this discussion; it is a useful and relevant example of how scientific research plays a pivotal role in answering the questions asked by the virus as it continues to rampage its way through the worlds populations. Understanding the viruss behavior, epidemiology, etiology, genotype, and phenotype will help medical professionals combat the disease, reduce the reproduction (or R) rate, and prevent people from dying. Biomedical research is also playing a primary role in the development of a vaccine.

What is biomedical research?

Biomedical research is defined as the broad area of science that looks for ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness and death in people and in animals.

Researchers utilize biotechnology techniques such as the use of human plasma samples to determine whether the studys stated hypothesis is correct or not.

In essence, biomedical researchers or scientists study biological processes and diseases with the ultimate goal of developing effective treatments and cures.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): The need for research is ongoing

While COVID-19 is a primary global concern and will be for the foreseeable future, lets move away from this scenario and consider another disease that requires ongoing research, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), including the use of human plasma samples in the testing phase of related research studies.

As an aside, CKD is a risk factor for COVID-19 morbidity. Thus, it makes even more sense to find ways to manage the disease and its progression, especially under the current circumstances.

The medical journal article titled Kidney Disease: new technologies translate mechanisms to cure, notes that kidney disease is one of the worlds most prevalent conditions and is a frequent complication of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

The introduction to this study goes on to state that recent advances in biomedical research and novel technologies have created opportunities to study kidney disease on a variety of platforms, applied to human populations.

Statistics reported by the CDC estimate that over 20 million Americans have CDK, of which 40% of sufferers are over 65 years of age. Secondly, it is estimated that the global prevalence of CDK is more than 10% of the worlds population.

Clearly, something must be done to treat this scourge.

It is also perhaps interesting to be mindful that a recent uniform definition of the term kidney disease altered the medical industrys perceptivity and outlook on CKDs impact on human health. Before the publication of this definition, the only kidney disease that was considered a significant health issue was the type that required a kidney transplant.

Fortunately, through continued biomedical research studies and heightened exposure to the overarching meaning of the phrase kidney disease, much has changed for the better. Researchers and medical professionals are now working together to understand the archetype Chronic Kidney Disease and its impact on human health and quality of life, especially within the COVID-19 paradigm.

The relationship between blood plasma and kidney disease

Finally, the question that begs is, what is the relationship between blood plasma and kidney disease. In other words, why are in-vitro human blood plasma samples an imperative in the study of the various parts to the all-encompassing term, chronic kidney disease?

By way of answering this question, lets consider the role that blood plasma plays in the human body, with particular reference to both kidneys.

Theprimary function of the human kidneysis to remove excess fluids and waste products from the body. A secondary role is to control the manufacture of red blood cells. Thus, in summary, it stands to reason that it is essential to take care of the kidneys, as with all other human organs, to ensure their optimal functioning.

The website, mcb.berkeley.edu reports that about 180 liters of fluids are filtered through the kidneys in a 24-hour period. The total blood plasma volume is only 3 liters, so it is filtered over 60 times a day.

Blood plasma, on the other hand, is an element of whole blood. Unfortunately, it is often the forgotten part of human blood. The other, more well-known elements are white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Plasma is the largest part of human blood. It makes up more than 50% of the bloods overall content. And its primary role is to transport hormones, nutrients, and proteins to the parts of the body that need it. During the process where cells interact with the blood plasma, receiving the nutrients, they also return waste products to the plasma, which is then carried to the kidneys where it is extracted and processed into urine.

Apart from the hormones, nutrients, and proteins, plasma also contains critical components, including clotting factors, antibodies, and albumin and fibrinogen.

Chronic Kidney Disease negatively impacts many different functions of the human body, especially the production of red blood cells and the ability to filter out waste products from the blood plasma. It is vital that the waste products, including toxins, are removed rapidly and efficiently.

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that it is a severe problem when the kidneys are no longer able to filter out the waste and toxins from the human blood plasma. Thus, the need for in-vitro blood plasma samples as a mechanism to develop a greater insight into CKD as well as new treatments for CKD. Succinctly stated, it is vital for human health and well-being.

Final thought

AtSolomon Park, we would not be able to provide research studies with the necessary blood plasma samples without human blood donations. Please consider donating blood today by consideringthe requirements to donate whole blood, which is then spun out into its individual components, including serum, plasma, and platelets.

And, if you are a biomedical research study manager or researcher, we have the right blood plasma samples to help you answer the questions asked by the studys hypothesis.

Read the original post:
Biomedical Research: Defining the relationship between Blood Plasma and Kidney Disease - MarylandReporter.com

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Bengaluru: A new study has found that the Himalayas generate large quantities of natural aerosols that may play an important role in cloud formation and the Earths climate.

The Himalayas act as a giant barrier to wind flow, facilitating the accumulation of aerosols that are then transported to high altitudes by mountain winds. Aerosols are airborne particles that are formed from both natural sources, such as gases released by plants, and pollutants emitted by human activities.

The study has shown that a large quantity of natural aerosols are transported by winds and pumped into the upper troposphere in the Himalayas. Knowing this is also likely to help scientists understand the quantity and effect of human-made aerosols in the future.

The study was aimed at understanding the formation of clouds and aerosols, as well as the levels of natural aerosol in the Himalayas. The observations were taken at the remote Nepal Climate Observatory Pyramid station, situated 5,079 m above the sea level and a few kilometres below the Everests summit.

The findings were published this month in Nature Geoscience journal.

Also read: Celestial fireworks tonight as Geminids meteor shower set to peak

Aerosols are microscopic solid, liquid, or mixed particles that remain suspended in the air. These form condensation nuclei particles on which water vapour condenses when they rise up the atmosphere, thus forming clouds.

However, since water content in the atmosphere doesnt change in relation to aerosol change, an increased quantity of aerosols hold on to smaller droplets that fall to the ground slowly. Understanding clouds and cloud formation also helps scientists in predicting climate changes.

The key process when studying aerosols and their cloud-forming properties is new particle formation (NPF), the process that is behind aerosol numbers in the atmosphere.

NPF is a two-step process. First, aerosols about the size of 1 nanometer are formed from liquids or gases (called precursors), and then they grow to larger sizes by condensation as they rise through the cool atmosphere. NPF events are typically observed at high altitude or mountain atmospheric observatories regularly.

At the Nepal Climate Observatory Pyramid, NPF was observed almost on a daily basis.

The international research team conducted observations from 28 November to 25 December 2014, after the monsoon, when there was no wind blowing from the Indo-Gangetic plains towards the Himalayas. The researchers noticed that there was a high frequency of NPF events, where particles wider than 1 nanometer and ions wider than 0.8 nanometer formed clusters quickly, and rapidly grew to sizes larger than 10 nanometers.

The researchers were able to tell, via wind direction, that the majority of nanoparticles came from southwesterly winds. An analysis of these particles and ions also indicated that a large fraction of the particles were organic, originating from plants.

Plants emit a variety of volatile organic compounds from leaves, flowers, and roots. These are released as a response to stress, during reproduction or pollination, or as defence against insects.

Owing to the nature of the winds, these organic aerosols are transported over large distances and to higher altitudes of the Himalayas. The researchers concluded that the Himalayas act as an free tropospheric aerosol factory, and discovered that natural aerosols could be the source of nearly half of the atmospheres cloud condensation nuclei in the region, and thus influence cloud properties.

When the Suns radiation and heat penetrates the Earths atmosphere, about a half of it reaches the surface. About a third gets scattered back to space, while the rest is absorbed within the atmosphere.

The land gets heated and this heat is then radiated back into space via the atmosphere. This heat is absorbed by greenhouses gases as well, further heating up the atmosphere.

The Earth remains in a radiation balance. It is exposed to tremendous amounts of heat and radiation from the Sun, which is balanced by the amount of heat and radiation escaping Earth. And this balance is important to maintain the planets climate.

When this natural balance gets affected, the phenomenon is known as radiative forcing. Understanding aerosol concentrations is important for monitoring radiative forcing.

When incoming radiation or trapped heat increases, there is positive forcing, and when the heat emitted into space increases, there is negative forcing.

Radiative forcing can be affected by many factors other than aerosols, and the global average of radiation absorption is about 240 watts per square metre.

It has been well established that when an imbalance in the radiation forces occur in the upper atmosphere, it is directly reflected as a change in surface temperature. Therefore, monitoring radiative forcing gives an approximate idea of the effects that could be seen on the surface.

Radiative forcing can be measured into the past, by looking at past aerosol records, and the effects of temperature on the surface. It is also useful for identifying new gases that humans may emit in future and the impact these would have on surface temperature, including assessing NPF.

The new study helps in understanding the effects of radiative forcing from the Himalayas and the extent of anthropogenic or human contribution to aerosols in the upper atmosphere.

Also read: Yale study finds why large mammals like elephants, tigers still exist in India

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There is a natural aerosol factory in the Himalayas and it affects climate, study finds - ThePrint

More and more threatened species are relying on captive breeding to avoid extinction. Some species on the brink only exist in captivity, and others depend on captive breeding for their recovery before theyre released to the wild.

Captive breeding programs face major challenges to achieve the best conservation outcomes, particularly high economic costs, and loss of vital genetic diversity from wild populations after even a few generations in captivity.

Our economic and genetic modelling published today shows how freezing genetic material and using assisted reproduction could provide a much-needed support-tool for captive breeding programs, solving genetic and economic issues and allowing zoos to breed more species and expand their valuable work.

These are the same tools and technologies commonly used in animal agriculture, research, medicine and disease and human fertility to boost production, lower costs, and produce healthy and strong humans and animals.

No-one should doubt the value of captive breeding to conservation. The European bison, California condor and Australias Southern Corrobboree Frog are three iconic species which would be extinct without captive breeding. Iconic Australian species the Orange-bellied Parrot and greater bilby have been captive bred for over 30 years.

Captive breeding is expensive in resources, labour and capital. Programs have high start-up costs, in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. High annual on-going costs, on average, are over $200,000 per year for a single species. Many programs are open-ended and will be required for many years or even decades if they are to achieve their objectives.

The high costs of current programs prevent conservationists from assisting many species that desperately need captive breeding. Amphibians are a case in point. Disease and habitat loss is decimating wild amphibian populations globally. There are now over 900 amphibian species which need captive populations. Over 200 of these species need it urgently to avoid extinction. Despite hundreds of species in need, the estimated global capacity and available resources can provide captive populations for no more than 50 amphibian species.

Read more: Swingers' hookup program can find the right match for endangered species

The costs are one thing, the genetics are something else. Captive breeding programs face significant challenges with genetic diversity. These are common even in some of the longest running and well-resourced captive breeding programs, such as giant pandas and Tasmanian devils.

Genes are lost after even one generation of captive breeding, and in just a few generations, animals most likely to thrive and breed in captivity show traits of domestication and adaptation to captivity. Inbreeding depression is unavoidable in small captive colonies typical of some captive programs. The loss of wild genes affects the overall fitness of captive bred animals for release back to the wild.

To counter the loss of genes in captive populations, the common global target for captive programs is to maintain 90% of the original captive populations genetic diversity for one hundred years. This is considered gold standard practice and aims to ensure reintroductions of animals into the wild long in the future will occur using animals with minimal genetic issues.

This target is unachievable in most programs because it is not feasible to keep colonies large enough to reduce inbreeding rates to the level required. But using biobanking and existing or developing assisted reproductive technologies could solve genetic and cost issues and finally make this target achievable.

Biobanking is the frozen storage of various living cells from threatened species, particularly sex cells, including sperm, eggs and embryos. Frozen samples can be kept long-term as insurance against extinction or thawed for use in conservation genetic management.

Read more: Tasmanian devils reared in captivity show they can thrive in the wild

Biobanking is not uncommon. Large commercial biomedical biobanks routinely store cell lines for cancer and other medical research. Biobanking is used extensively to store seeds of crops and threatened plants and in animal agriculture to store rare or valuable breeds of livestock animals.

Biobanks exist for conservation also, for example the Frozen Zoo in San Diego, the UKs Frozen Ark and the Australian Frozen Zoo store frozen samples of some of the worlds most threatened species. Biobanking is helping save the black-footed ferret from extinction after the last remaining ferrets (less than twenty) were brought into a captive breeding program in the 1980s and supplemented with frozen sperm after many years to add back lost genes.

Using real data on the economic costs of captive breeding, we generated models for the threatened Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa), a native of Canada and North America, which predict program costs and rates of genetic diversity loss for captive populations of any size. We then calculated how these costs change, and inbreeding rates reduce, when genes are added back into captive populations each generation using cryopreserved sperm. These models will work on any species where costs of captive breeding are available.

Read more: Personality matters: when saving animals, fortune favours the bold

The results for the Oregon spotted frog model were startling. Biobanking dramatically slowed the rate of inbreeding and required far fewer live frogs to be held. Under normal captive breeding conditions, over 1,800 live frogs were required to meet the genetic target. By using biobanking, this number was reduced to 58 live frogs.

The estimated cost savings and the improved genetic fitness for the Oregon spotted frog were profound. The conventional captive population required to meet the genetic target of 90% genetic diversity would cost over $2.8 million to set up, followed by $537 million in a total 100-year program. The biobanked population would cost $121,000 to set up, followed by total costs of only around $20 million over the same period. This represents a 26-fold reduction in overall costs from normal captive breeding to the biobanking approach.

Investment in the biobanking approach could allow captive breeding institutions to maintain animals that are fitter and more like those from wild populations. Captive breeding programs could meet genetic targets which have never been achieved and produce animals more suited for release to the wild.

The drastically reduced costs would allow institutions to hold many more species. With investment in research on the underlying technologies, the approach would not be limited to amphibians and could work in any species. Building in biobanking could usher in a new era of captive breeding for a much greater number of species in desperate need.

Read more: Zoos aren't Victorian-era throwbacks: they're important in saving species

See the original post:
Human reproductive technologies like sperm freezing and IVF could be used to save threatened species - The Conversation AU

CLAIMVaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine claims are surging across the world, even as we get closer to having a COVID-19 vaccine ready. This has also affected one of the prime vaccine candidates we have right now, Pfizer, which has also applied for emergency authorization in India. Pfizer-BionTechs novel COVID-19 vaccine, BNT-162, which is one of the most promising vaccines approved for selective use right now has, too, been subjected to criticism and false claims, despite its strong safety and efficacy reports.

According to reports surfacing on social media pages, some users suggest that Pfizers vaccine could be bad for women of reproductive age.

The growing claims are raising concerns on the public level, as authorities draw up lists to inoculate the first doses amongst healthcare workers, senior citizens and hospital staff in the coming week.

A viral report, which cites Pfizers head of research suggests people to not take the vaccine jab, as it can cause female sterilization.

The social media post, which has been widely shared and circulated also offers a sort of explainer, adding that the vaccine works to deliver a robust immune response against a spike protein, 'synctin-1', which is vital for placental formation and once the vaccine is administered, it could cause sterilization and problems related to infertility.

The post reads:

"The vaccine contains a spike protein (see image) called syncytin-1, vital for the formation of human placenta in women. If the vaccine works so that we form an immune response AGAINST the spike protein, we are also training the female body to attack syncytin-1, which could lead to infertility in women of an unspecified duration."

The claim is similar to the one which suggested that the Oxford-Astrazeneca shot may be bad for males, and contains parts of human aborted fetus.

Related posts also suggests that some of the leading scientists and ex-heads of Pfizer have urged the medical community to draw COVID vaccination studies to an end because of significant safety concerns and threats to reproduction

TRUTHEven though the vaccine studies being conducted right now are happening in an accelerated, unprecedented manner, Pfizers vaccine jab is one of the earliest shots in the offering right now which carries a strong 94% efficacy rate.

Pfizer's vaccine, which is wrapping up phase III trials makes use of a novel mRNA approach, which trains the immune system to 'recognize' an illness-causing strain or germ.

The vaccine, which has been widely tested on 30,000 + volunteers (both healthy and young) hasnt been observed to carry adverse reactions or side-effects which could impact its functioning.

Also, most trials are being regulated under the purview of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and subject to stringent norms. None of the trials differentiate between male and female volunteers. Hence, the odds of any vaccine being bad for just one sex would be a tall claim to make.

Secondly, as of right now, none of the volunteers who have spoken up about the vaccine trials have reported suffering from mysterious side-effects such as the one being reported on social media.

VERDICT

Original post:
Coronavirus fact-check: Can the Pfizer vaccine affect a woman's reproductive health? Myth debunked! - Times of India

A long-term study of macaques given mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) found that both treated individuals and their offspring were healthy and developed normally.

Researchers report, after a decade of careful monitoring, that the first primates born after treatment with a gene therapy designed to prevent inherited mitochondrial disease developed normally and that the treatment had no adverse health effects in either the treated individuals or their offspring.

The scientists say their results support the scientific basis for testing mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) in human clinical trials, with one important caveat; in the study the team found varying levels of carry-over maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that had preferentially replicated and accumulated within some internal organs, although not enough to cause health effects.

Our data show that MRT is compatible with normal development, fertility and aging in nonhuman primates without any detected adverse effects, write the authors. However, carry-over maternal or paternal mtDNA contributions increased substantially in selected internal tissues/organs of some MRT animals, implying the possibility of mtDNA mutation recurrence.

The study was led by Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy, US.

Mitochondria control respiration and energy production within every cell of the body, so mitochondrial gene mutations contribute to a range of incurable and potentially fatal disorders affecting organs with high-energy demands such as the heart, muscle and brain. To prevent the transmission of pathogenic mtDNA from mother to offspring, scientists developed MRT a gene therapy in which mtDNA from a healthy donor is transferred in oocytes prior to fertilisation.

In the five rhesus macaques used in the study, the mtDNA was transferred in such a way that the donor mtDNA accounted for >97 percent of the total, maternal mtDNA was less than three percent and paternal mtDNA was <0.1 percent after birth.

According to the study, all five MRT macaques developed normally to adulthood and were unremarkable from control animals in both their general health and fertility. Additionally, their offspring also developed normally.

It is reassuring that the monkeys appear to be healthy and fertile through generations, said co-author Dr Paula Amato, professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine. It adds to a growing body of evidence that would support moving forward with clinical trials to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial disease.

This will not occur in the US, because of Congress using a budgetary rider to prevent the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from providing oversight for such clinical trials. However, gene therapies are currently being evaluated in trials in the UK and Greece.

The question was always there about the long-term safety of this technique, Mitalipov said. We wanted to find out whether this procedure will somehow show negative effects later in life. We saw no adverse health effects across two generations.

The only concern highlighted in the study was that despite maternal mtDNA accounting for less than three percent of the total in blood, urine and skin cells samples after birth, when the internal tissues and organs of the animals were analysed after death, one individual had substantially increased levels of maternal mtDNA up to 16.6 percent in the small intestine. While this falls well below the level Mitalipov says would be considered disease-causing (60 percent), there is a possibility that such increases could result in disease recurrence.

Another curious finding of the study was that, although mtDNA is normally passed from mother to child, in two macaques up to 33 percent of the mtDNA in selected tissues was contributed by the paternal line. This is unusual, although not unprecedented, and Mitalipov said he is interested in learning more about why the minute level of mtDNA in sperm cells replicated exponentially as the cells divided and the embryos grew.

The study was published in the journalHuman Reproduction.

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Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) shown to be safe in monkeys - Drug Target Review