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Endocrine Abstracts (2016) 44 SE1.2 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.44.SE1.2

SFEBES2016 Special Workshops and Sessions Senior Endocrinologists' Session (4 abstracts)

Conservation endocrinology: What, are there more than two species to consider?

Alan McNeilly


University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.


Conservation is a tricky subject to discuss when people actually are asked to consider the present situation, and the virtual world that many live in today. Many of the losses of species are due to human intervention, through killing for pleasure, food, or profit (greed), or through habitat destruction. The species are innocent. Zoos provide a sanctuary for maintaining some numbers of species on a limited scale, but can only ever be a stop-gap to maintain the species, although with a reduced gene pool. Feral animal control on the other hand is difficult, and attempts to introduce robust methods that do not involve killing the animal to avoid upsetting the general public and/or politicians, e.g. immuno-contraception, have met with limited success. For breeding success to be maximized requires an in depth knowledge of the endocrine control of egg production and maintenance of pregnancy through to birth of a viable offspring. Most studies use urine as blood sampling usually requires anaesthesia, and this limits the endocrine profiling that can be achieved. Nevertheless reasonable data bases are being developed for a few species. Further success will require more comparative studies, given the different strategies utilized by different species to establish a pregnancy once an egg is fertilized. This may involve delayed implantation but determining the signals that control implantation is difficult to study. Drawing on our previous studies on meerkats, elephants, deer, wallabies, squirrels, badgers, and currently pandas, we will review potential problems in saving species through controlled breeding programs, and emphasize that studying only e.g. human and mice, or a few cell types often in isolation, will never advance knowledge. This is particularly the case given the inadequate career track for many scientists on year by year funding crises, and inadequate development and assessment of reagents supplied commercially.

Volume 44

Society for Endocrinology BES 2016

Brighton, UK
07 Nov 2016 - 09 Nov 2016

Society for Endocrinology 

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