VOA常速英语2015--试管小狗的成功可拯救濒临灭绝动物（在线收听）

Test Tube Pups May Help Rescue Endangered Species 试管小狗的成功可拯救濒临灭绝动物

Scientists at Cornell University have proudly presented the first litter of dogs successfully born through in vitro fertilization, or IVF. The breakthrough may help in combating inherited diseases that affect canines as well as humans.

These playful pups are part of litter of Seven, born July 10, out of 19 embryos implanted in the same female dog.Five are beagles and two are beagle-cocker spaniel mixes.

这些活蹦乱跳的小狗都是塞文的小崽，出生于7月10日，塞文曾被植入19个受精卵。它产下5只毕格尔猎犬和2只毕格尔与史宾格混种猎犬。

Other animals, as well as humans, have been successfully bred through artificial insemination,but perfecting the process in dogs took decades because of the critical timing in fertilization of the female dog’s eggs.

一些其他动物，包括人类都成功实现了人工受精，而小狗人工受精技术一直没取得成功，主要是由于母狗受精的时间很难把握。

Previously, only one dog was born from a frozen embryo, in 2012, at the same Cornell University lab.

2012年，同样在康奈尔大学实验室中，为小狗植入冷冻受精卵，却仅有一只小狗顺利诞生。

Scientists say the new success opens the door to saving endangered species of dogs.

科研人员表示，这一技术的成功打开了保护濒于灭绝动物的大门。

“Like the African painted dog, if we want to breed them in captivity and we collect, say, their eggs and sperm,we have to be able to do IVF to create new members of that species.”

“比如说非洲的一种野狗，如果我们想圈养这种野狗，可以采集其精子和卵子，通过体外受精，成功之后会就会诞生同品种的小狗。”

Successfully fertilizing eggs in the lab could also help eliminate many of the disease traits in dogs.

小狗体外受精的成功对减少小狗疾病将有很大的好处。

“It opens up the possibility that we could identify certain genes that cause disease and then fix those, replace them with a good copy of the gene, before those dogs are even born.So instead of trying to cure disease, we can help prevent it from happening in the first place.”

“这项实验的成功标志着我们能识别致病基因并修复基因，在小狗未出生前，即可更换其缺陷基因。所以与其说我们治疗疾病，不如说我们从源头上预防疾病。”

Cornell University scientists say that the complete understanding of in vitro fertilization of dogs will also help unveil the genetic basis of some of the more than 350 disorders that humans share with dogs.

康奈尔大学的科研人员还表示，人类和小狗有着350多项相同疾病，小狗体外受精技术的成熟也将帮助揭开人类基因未解之谜。