“Meet Elizabeth Ann, the First Cloned Black-Footed Ferret: Her Birth Represents the First Cloning of an Endangered Species Native to North America, and May Bring Needed Genetic Diversity to the Species”, 2021-02-18 (; similar):
Her successful cloning is the culmination of a years-long collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Revive & Restore, the for-profit company ViaGen Pets & Equine, San Diego Zoo Global and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Cloned siblings are on the way, and potential (cloned) mates are already being lined up. If successful, the project could bring needed genetic diversity to the endangered species. And it marks another promising advance in the wider effort to use cloning to retrieve an ever-growing number of species from the brink of extinction…“Pinch me”, joked Oliver Ryder, the director of conservation genetics at San Diego Zoo Global, over a Zoom call. “The cells of this animal banked in 1988 have become an animal.”
…In 2013, the Fish and Wildlife Service approached Revive & Restore to explore how biotechnology, which the nonprofit develops in pursuit of the de-extinction of species, could help increase the genetic diversity of black-footed ferrets. The following year, Revive & Restore sequenced the genomes of four black-footed ferrets. First there was Balboa, who was born by means of artificial insemination using cryopreserved, genetically diverse sperm. Second was Cheerio, who was born naturally and shares ancestry from all seven founders; Novak calls him an “every ferret.” The last two ferrets came from tissue samples at the Frozen Zoo, one male called “Studbook Number 2” and one female named Willa. “When we looked at Balboa, we saw from an empirical standpoint that a great deal of genetic diversity had been rescued by reaching back into the past”, Mr. Novak said.
Revive & Restore designed a proposal and submitted it to Fish and Wildlife. In 2018, the nonprofit received the first-ever permit to research cloning an endangered species. Revive & Restore partnered with the commercial cloning company ViaGen Pets & Equine to design the cloning process.
The first trial began around Halloween. The Frozen Zoo sent Willa’s cryogenically preserved cell line to ViaGen’s lab in New York. ViaGen created embryos and implanted them into a domestic ferret surrogate. At day 14, an ultrasound confirmed heartbeats. The surrogate was shipped to the conservation center and was watched 24 hours a day for signs of labor. On Dec. 10, Elizabeth Ann was delivered via C-section. “Our beautiful little clone”, Mr. Novak said. On Elizabeth Ann’s 65th day of life the technicians drew her blood, swabbed her cheek and sent the samples to Samantha Wisely, a conservation geneticist at the University of Florida, who confirmed that Elizabeth Ann was, in fact, a black-footed ferret.
…When the clones reach sexual maturity, they will breed, and then their offspring will be bred back with wild black-footed ferrets to ensure there is no mitochondrial DNA left over from the surrogate mother.