feiursday, February 1, 2001
Page 5A
; <-'bruary |
science
r
TECH
—Afom,
vho moi
rd for St ;
led Wedc:
| nee seen 1 !
g a weap'
iss Leon; ■
he wot
Steven Piwonka
he Battalion
There is a story, which is thousands of years
old, about a man named Noah who conducted
a preservation project of epic proportions, sav
ing every species of animal known to man.
I Recently, the College of Veterinary Medi
cine began to spin its own tale of preservation
with a project that would have made Noah
proud and with technology Noah would have
liked to have.
H Named “Project Noah’s Ark,” its goal is to
prevent endangered species from vanishing.
We are able to go directly
to the animal's environ-
! ment. It's a state-of-the-art
lab that can go just about
anywhere there's a road
— Dr. Duane Kraemer
Director of Project Noah's Ark
any an:,
o reason:
ardsaid.
n. ‘Tmi
jeopardv
p-hop k
on De^!
.1 nighii
ith his ;
t Jen:
• as elk;,
and br
i his:
ap for:,
eir vel.
rs inpr
\.
. defer:-:
afman
, fora-
pset b; ■
ey Mai 1—■ 1 -
ards-. Unlike the first ark, however, the lab will not
adictlK u Se hundreds of stables and pens to house live
(animals: this lab only collects their genes.
™JW)E | p) r Duane Kraemer, director of the project
ids.sear a researcher in the College of Veterinary
'rs ir' M edicine ’ sa i d the lab is a 28-foot-long trailer
that contains “a complete genetics lab on
)ercarne. u , „ r
wheels.
• | The truck-pulled trailer houses a surgery
m iir room, an examining room, a recovery area, and
a the latest reproductive biotechnology medical
® J1 (equipment. It requires no outside resources to
complete its goals.
enWfcl i
cl
I
7®
“This new lab is a dream we’ve had for
about 15 years,” Kraemer said. “With it, we are
able to go directly to the animal’s environment.
It’s a state-of-the-art lab that can go just about
anywhere there’s a road.”
The lab cost $ 120,000 and was funded by a
matching grant from the Trans Pecos Desert
Bighorn Sheep Restoration Society, which is
headed by Clayton Williams Jr., a former stu
dent of A&M. Dodgen Industries of Humboldt,
Iowa, which makes mobile medical and dental
facilities, built the trailer.
The finished product, called the Mobile Re
productive Genetics Lab, took a year to design
and three months to build.
“It’s like no other we’ve made,” said Bill
Ryan, director of Dodgen’s veterinary division.
“It’s bigger than most, and it’s got the very best
equipment.”
The first mission for the lab is to honor the
project’s benefactors by collecting samples and
performing experiments on the bighorn sheep
of West Texas.
The sheep, which once numbered in the
thousands, are now a threatened species in
Texas.
“As well as collecting DNA from skin sam
ples for possible cloning, we also engaged in
embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization of the
sheep,” Kraemer said. “A long-term goal of
ours is to spread favorable characteristics from
one group of sheep to another that does not
show those characteristics.”
Kraemer said that some populations of
bighorn sheep are more resistant to diseases
and parasites than others. Therefore, re
searchers cross-fertilized members of different
populations in an attempt to spread the desired
genes to places they would not reach without
human intervention
Kraemer said that
the bighorn sheep are
not reproducing fast
enough and it is neces
sary to implant fertilized
eggs in other species to help
them along.
Once a recipient is found,
the lab is fully equipped to
fertilize eggs and implant them
inside a host on site.
“The Armenian type sheep as
well as other local sheep with re
lation to the bighorn are the
best candidates for carrying
an implanted bighorn em
bryo to term,” he said.
Kraemer said that
there are no future plans
set in stone for the mo
bile facility, but the best
guess would be a journey to collect
samples from addax antelopes,
another endangered species.
Project Noah’s Ark’s lab is
housed at the Reproductive Sci
ences Lab at 500 University
Drive West.
www-busops-tamu.edu
If last Friday's article in the Batt confused you, let us clarify. We will "beef-up" our operations
with new and improved services, once the referendum is approved... we guarantee. For ACCURATE
and UP-TO-DATE information regarding the Transportation Fee, visit our website:
newbus.tamu.edu.
M o v i n i
ith You
r w a r
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STUART VILLANUEVA AND RUBEN DELUNA^he Battalion