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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah government have faith and will facilitate experts in increasing the success rate of in-vitro fertilisation for the country's Sumatran rhinoceros.
State Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew said that experts from Germany8, Berlin and United Kingdom had successfully retrieved an egg from Malaysians last living female Sumatran rhino-Iman on Monday.
"The next thing to do is to fertilise the egg with male (rhino from here named Tam who died in May).
"We are now waiting for the proper time (for the fertilisation) and (the fertilised egg) to go to Sumatra in Indonesia," said the state Tourism, Culture and Environment minister to media.
An online report by Mongabay.com had quoted scientists that the prospects of a successful fertilisation are not bright given the poor quality of the genetic samples.
On Oct 1, Indonesia's Bogor Institute of Agriculture professor Arief Boediona had injected sperm into the said egg at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
Borneo Rhino Alliance head John Payne was quoted that the team had to rely on "poor quality" sperm which was collected when Tam was about 60-year-old in 2015 and 2016 and preserved in liquid nitrogen.
Payne also said that it highlighted the lack of progress on an agreement between Malaysia and Indonesia to allow Iman's gamete to be fertilised with healthy sperm from one of Indonesians rhinos.
However, Liew said those said experts are specialised in fertilisation work.
"It is their job and let them carry out the work. They are here and have started working on it."
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