Only if they wanted to sell some desert females.
Sit on those females a while, release the good news, and their value in the eyes of the public takes a huge jump, particularly if they're not newborns.
I don't believe the above is true, but there is no guarantee that they would 'immediately try to discount the rumor'. Heck, if a project I'd invested time and money into came to fruition and much of the public was ridiculing it, I'd sit back for a good while with a smirk on my face.
I think it's safe to say that everyone is crossing their fingers that there are little to no issues with deserts, because having such a beautiful trait to work with would be good for everyone's collections.