Reviving the Milking Devon - Essay Example

The embryo is a potential organism in that it has the ability of developing into the biological structures and functions needed to generate consciousness and mental life characteristic of that organism (Flynn & Dawkins 635). The frozen embryo must first be thawed. The embryos are removed from their storage canisters and are exposed to room temperature. Cryoprotectant is removed and is replaced with water, but the process should be done carefully to prevent it from bursting. The embryos are the brought to room temperature and transferred, or they may be cultured to multiply before they are transferred.

Survival of embryos to the thawing process depends on their quality before freezing, effectiveness of freezing and thawing procedures. After thawing, embryos are evaluated for viability. Some may not be viable due to lack of surviving cells while others may be partial survivors with some cell injury. The damage may not prevent the embryos from resulting into live birth because it was already proved that even damaged embryos in the process of freezing and thawing are capable of causing pregnancy (Wassarman & Soriano 38).

The best embryos are those that, after freezing and thawing, they survive a hundred percent with all parts of their cells intact, but very few embryos tend to fall in this category. Embryos are checked for the presence of abnormal chromosomes, or problems with genetic coding, which may cause, genetic diseases or miscarriage, and gender of the inborn by carrying out preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (Shermer 365). This involves surgically removing one or two blastomeres from a six or eight cell embryo usually on the third day after thawing.

Note that removing a cell at this time does not harm the embryo. The embryos are incubated for a day after thawing until they reach the cleaved stage, and then they are transferred into the uterus of another cow. Since all dairy cattle are dead, any cow including the beef cattle may be used. This process should be done on the second day after ovulation of the surrogate cow. The cow becomes pregnant and delivers Milking Devon calf. Consequently, Milking Devon can also be revived through somatic cell nuclear transfer technology.

The DNA is extracted from nucleus of frozen embryo. The DNA is then reassembled using the genome of any cattle available. Extract the eggs from the ovary of any cow; remove its genetic material from their nuclei and replace them with the genetic material from the extinct Milking Devon. Fuse the nuclei with eggs of the surrogate cow and initiate cell division by treating them with chemicals or shocking them with electric current (Flynn & Dawkins 635). When the embryos have grown to two hundred cells in size, transfer them into the uterus of the surrogate cow.

The surrogate cow will become pregnant and deliver the extinct Milking Devon. The frozen Milking Devon sperm can also be used to produce a cross a breed with characteristics similar to those of the original Milking Devon (Perry 347). Obtain the mature unfertilized eggs from the surrogate cow and store them in BSS at room temperature. Remove the BSS from the unfertilized egg and mix them with the thawed sperms. Then incubate the mixture of sperms and eggs in appropriate temperature for around fifteen minutes.

Sort out the fertilized and unfertilized eggs; unfertilized eggs are incubated with sperms again to ensure that many of them are fertilized.