{"id":512117,"date":"2026-06-23T07:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/death-was-not-the-end-three-goats-are-born-through-in-vitro-fertilization-from-dead-animals\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T07:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:30:51","slug":"death-was-not-the-end-three-goats-are-born-through-in-vitro-fertilization-from-dead-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/death-was-not-the-end-three-goats-are-born-through-in-vitro-fertilization-from-dead-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"“Death was not the end! Three goats are born through in vitro fertilization from dead animals”"},"content":{"rendered":"“n

Madrid.-<\/strong> Spanish scientists have achieved for the first time the birth of three ibexes or mountain goats (Capra pyrenaica<\/em>) through in vitro<\/em> fertilization of oocytes and sperm from dead specimens transferred to recipient females, a technique that could help conserve this species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

The authors, a team from the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA) of the CSIC, extracted gametes (oocytes and sperm) from the ovaries and testicles of animals that died in the Sonsaz National Hunting Reserve (Madrid) and the Andalusian Hunting Reserve of the Sierras de Tejeda y Almijara (M\u00e1laga), in southern Spain.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

From that point on, the team formed by members of the Animal Genomic Engineering and Physiology and Reproductive Technologies in Wild Species groups applied different assisted reproduction techniques.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

You can also read: DR produces 1.5 million In Vitro plants of commercial value annually<\/a><\/p>n”\n\n“n

First, they cryopreserved the sperm of deceased specimens in liquid nitrogen at temperatures close to -200 degrees to conserve and store the semen and use it later to inseminate females.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

“It is important that the sperm be collected within the first eight hours after the animal’s death so that they maintain their fertilizing capacity,” notes INIA-CSIC researcher Juli\u00e1n Santiago Moreno.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

Meanwhile, in the laboratories, they extracted the oocytes from ovaries collected postmortem, matured them in vitro<\/em>, and fertilized them with the thawed sperm in a culture medium called TALP, originally developed for bovine reproduction.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

After fertilization, the zygotes were cultured in a controlled environment that simulates the conditions of the reproductive tract until they developed and reached the blastocyst stage; they were then cryopreserved while awaiting transfer to a recipient female.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

To do this, the team optimized in vitro<\/em> fertilization techniques “from a previous study in which sperm from Spanish ibex were used to fertilize oocytes from domestic goats (Capra hircus<\/em>),” explains researcher Nuria Mart\u00ednez de Los Reyes.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

Until 2006, the available cryopreservation techniques had an insurmountable limitation: they only allowed for the storage of male semen.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

However, current technology allows for the development of a complete genetic reserve, of both males and females, since, by being able to mature postmortem<\/em> oocytes and freeze the resulting embryos, it is possible to safeguard the genetic legacy of both sexes, which allows for the reconstruction of an entire population from scratch.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

Once the embryos are obtained, they are frozen using a process called vitrification, an ultra-rapid freezing technique that protects the cells by preventing the formation of ice crystals and opens the door to the creation of cryopreserved embryo banks obtained through in vitro<\/em> fertilization from gametes of dead animals.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

“These banks could be used to recover ecotypes in the event of natural disasters or infectious outbreaks. Furthermore, we could apply the technique to conserve other endangered mountain ungulates,” explains researcher Pablo Bermejo \u00c1lvarez.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

The team transferred the vitrified embryos to five recipient females and the procedure culminated in the full development of the pregnancies and the birth of three kids.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

“Two of the three cubs, both males, are in perfect health and continue their development normally. The third died after birth due to a lack of colostrum -the first secretion of the mammary gland- from the recipient female,” explains Priscila Ramos-Ibeas.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

A symbol of the Iberian Peninsula<\/strong><\/h2>n”\n\n“n

The Iberian ibex is a symbol of Iberian biodiversity and, although it is relatively common in certain regions, the isolation of some groups makes them extremely vulnerable to epidemic outbreaks, inbreeding, and environmental disasters.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

The techniques developed in this work represent a key tool for preventing the extinction of subspecies such as the Portuguese ibex of the Iberian Peninsula or the bucardo (Pyrenean ibex), whose last specimen died in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park 26 years ago.<\/p>n”\n\n“n

“This technology, which until now had not been successfully applied to any species of ibex, could be used in ex situ<\/em> conservation programs for other threatened mountain ungulate species such as the Walia ibex, the Nubian ibex, or the Saharan and Egyptian Barbary sheep,” the authors conclude. <\/p>n”\n\n“n

<\/p>n”","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“n Madrid.- Spanish scientists have achieved for the first time the birth of three ibexes or mountain goats (Capra pyrenaica) through in vitro fertilization of oocytes and sperm from dead specimens transferred to recipient females, a technique that could help conserve this species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. n” “n The authors, a team from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[36207,43269],"class_list":["post-512117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-in-vitro","tag-scientists"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-29dX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Captura-de-pantalla-2025-03-19-093545.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Captura-de-pantalla-2025-03-19-093545.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}