- Messages
- 1,791
- Reaction score
- 844
- Points
- 113
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this is a very rare birth -
a sterile F mule was brought into pseudoestrus via estrogen, implanted with a QH embryo, given progesterone to maintain the pregnancy, & she foaled on her own, only needing a little help to get the 2nd forefoot out.
The baby is up, nursing, & doing fine - dam & foal are unrelated, but they bonded prior to birth, like any other mother / infant pair.
The significance of this is not "wow, we can make more horses!" or "let's breed mules as surrogates!", but that this success gives hope to sterile & aging endangered mammals - White Rhino, Indian Rhino, Sumatran Rhino, African Elephant - as their eggs or sperm can be used to make embryos for transfer into surrogate dams of non-threatened spp.
.
this is a very rare birth -
a sterile F mule was brought into pseudoestrus via estrogen, implanted with a QH embryo, given progesterone to maintain the pregnancy, & she foaled on her own, only needing a little help to get the 2nd forefoot out.
The baby is up, nursing, & doing fine - dam & foal are unrelated, but they bonded prior to birth, like any other mother / infant pair.
The significance of this is not "wow, we can make more horses!" or "let's breed mules as surrogates!", but that this success gives hope to sterile & aging endangered mammals - White Rhino, Indian Rhino, Sumatran Rhino, African Elephant - as their eggs or sperm can be used to make embryos for transfer into surrogate dams of non-threatened spp.
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