INTERVIEW
Photo
Stock lamy
; Jeff Rotman/A
Shutterstock can reintroduce genetic diversity, if an outbreak goes through, it just annihilates the population. There is a vaccine, but it’s so hard to vaccinate wild populations. So we are also looking at how we can get these ferrets to resist the disease. Through our partners at MIT, we’re working on turning the canine distemper vaccine used for the captive-bred ferrets into a gene, so that when individuals are released into the wild, they can then pass it on to their offspring. We’re also looking at a range of lost alleles that we could potentially gene edit back into the population. We can’t produce hundreds of clones to produce and spread these alleles – it’s very low efficiency for producing viable embryos and it takes a lot of resources. We’re also looking at whether stem cell technologies, such as in vitro mutagenesis or blastocyst complementation techniques, can help us get higher efficiency rates, so we can produce many more individuals.
For this species, it’s everything from using the genomic information, to the reproductive technologies, to biobank resources to gene editing, doing all of that to help overcome these issues with black-footed ferrets. And the issues facing the black-footed ferret are not unique – they are similar to what many other endangered species are facing.
Above: Revive & Restore’s model ‘de-extinction project’ is the passenger pigeon
A project to restore the woolly mammoth (right) was handed to the private firm Colossal in 2021
You mentioned the resources going into a project such as black-footed ferret cloning. Can you tell me what sort of costs have been involved with that project? And whether it is feasible to spend that amount of money on the many thousands of endangered species facing similar threats? Before I go into that I’ll give you some context. Since 1967, when the blackfooted ferret was listed as endangered, the US Federal Government has spent $1.99bn on its conservation. That is not including any money that was spent on land acquisitions to help the species. And that’s just the government money. This work relies on partnerships with zoos and other non-profits. That’s a pretty
It might take hundreds of millions of dollars to roll out biotech solutions for corals. But that’s a decades-long price for a centuries-long solution typical number for the 1,600 or so endangered species in the US. There are species that have cost up to $4bn to conserve. Although they seem like huge numbers, they are cumulative figures over 40-plus years and annually the figure is fairly insignificant compared with total US government spending.
Our budget for the programme so far and for the next three years comes to about $2.5m. Yes, a couple of million dollars seems like a lot, but we’re trying to come up with solutions to stop us spending millions of dollars a year without a long-term solution.
In truth, we will probably end up having to roll out maybe 20-plus million dollars to achieve this through biotechnology. But our hope is you finally end up having a future where that species has real recovery.
Thinking of corals, too, it might take hundreds of millions of dollars to roll out biotech solutions for corals. But that’s a decades-long price for a centurieslong solution. Potentially a millennialong solution.
14 / THE BIOLOGIST / Vol 71 No 2
