Cloned Calf Has Grown Up, Given Birth to Healthy Calf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2003
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Cloned Calf Has Grown Up, Given Birth to Healthy Calf
Cindy Daley, biotechnologist with the College of Agriculture, California State University, Chico, announced that Martie, the first bovine clone born in California, has given birth to a healthy calf. She calved unassisted under range conditions in Northern California on March 12, just three days after her second birthday.
Martie, or MS Cigar 126, her scientific name, was born in March of 2001, as part of a collaborative project with Cyagra LLC, a biotechnology company now located in Worcester, Massachusetts. Daley was the project director and oversaw the successful implantation of embryos into recipient females.
Martie is the clone of JDJ MS Cigar G58, a Charolais owned by Byrd Cattle Company in Red Bluff, California. Cells were harvested from an ear punch from the cow, then cultured and transferred one at a time to recipient eggs for the nuclear transfer process. After seven days in culture, the successful nuclear transfer (NT) embryos were shipped to the Agricultural Teaching and Research Center at CSU, Chico.
Martie weighed in at 116 pounds at birth, large by normal standards, but somewhat typical of calves born to the in-vitro fertilization and NT cloning procedure. Two other calves, born at the same time, died within a few weeks.
After 60 days of observation, Martie and her surrogate mother were allowed to go home and live like any other cow/calf pair. At one year of age, Martie passed her reproductive exam and was bred at 15 months of age.
“Martie conceived immediately to LT Unlimited Ease 9108, a bull registered as a sire with the Charolais Association,” said Daley. “A bull calf was born on March 12, 2003, weighing in at 82 pounds. This cloned heifer performed as well as her conventionally produced contemporaries, proving that this particular cloned female is “normal,” at least reproductively speaking, and can perform under commercial conditions.”
Martie is not the first clone to give birth; there are many cloned dairy females that have calved and are lactating normally. The milk from these females is currently being compared to conventional milk to determine if the milk from cloned cows is “normal.”
Similar experiments are also being conducted to determine if meat from beef clones is comparable in every way to conventional beef, said Daley.
“The news of Martie’s unassisted birth of a normal, healthy calf is a step in the right direction if cloning is ever going to be applicable to the commercial industry,” said Daley.
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