Restoration of an inbred adder population

Thomas Madsen, Richard Shine, Mats Olsson and Håkan Wittzell
Additional contact information
Thomas Madsen: School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney
Richard Shine: Lund University
Mats Olsson: Animal Ecology, University of Gothenburg
Håkan Wittzell: Lund University

Nature, 1999, vol. 402, issue 6757, 34-35

Abstract: Abstract The negative effects of inbreeding on population size are well documented in captive animals1, but there is surprisingly little evidence that genetic factors cause a decline in wild populations2,3, apart from a reported correlation of low levels of genetic variability with a high incidence of malformed or stillborn offspring4. From the point of view of conservation strategies, it is not only the effect of genetic factors on population decline that needs to be considered, but also whether introducing novel genes can prevent or reverse such a decline. Here we show that the introduction of new genes into a severely inbred and isolated population of adders (Vipera berus) halted its precipitous decline towards extinction and expanded the population dramatically.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/46941

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