World's first test-tube camel born in UAE

The UAE has successfully reproduced the world's first in-vitro fertilisation camel.

It took researchers at the Abu Dhabi Camel Research Centre in Suwaihan four years to produce the camel, who was born on Wednesday.

"After 1 year and 22 days of pregnancy, one healthy calf was born. It was a male camel and its weight was 38 kilograms," said Dr Abdul Haq Anouassi, chairman of the breeding section at the centre.

"In-vitro fertilisation is a technique that involves retrieving eggs [oocytes] and sperm from the bodies of the female and male and placing them together in a laboratory dish to facilitate fertilisation.

"Fertilised eggs are then allowed to develop in vitro and after several days are transferred into a female's reproductive tract, where implantation and embryo development can occur.

"Ovaries were obtained from adult females that were slaughtered in Khazna camel abattoir. Oocytes were recovered by aspiration of all follicles more than five millimetres. The selected oocytes were matured. Semen was collected using a bovine artificial vagina on the day of in-vitro fertilisation.

"Following in-vitro fertilisation, the zygotes obtained were placed on monolayer cells. After 24 hours of culture, the zygotes were examined under the microscope and the first oocytes [two to eight cells] were observed.

The embryos obtained were kept in co-culture up to nine days, before their transfer to recipients.

"Good-quality embryos were deposited in uteri of recipient camels."

The centre has 14 in-vitro fertilisation pregnancies, Dr Hadj Khatir said. Four camels are expected to give birth early next month.