Cloned calf born in Shandong ( 2003-10-09 09:54) (China Daily)
A somatic cell-cloned calf named "Beibei" was born early yesterday morning in
East China's Shandong Province, marking another breakthrough China has made in
the field of cloning.
The female cloned calf was measured at 78 centimetres tall and 66 centimetres
long, at a weight of 33 kilograms.
Sources with the Animal Embryo Engineering Centre of Laiyang Agricultural
College in Shandong said that researchers have used ovulation embryo transfer
technologies as well as a process called "vaperification" to produce Beibei.
Before Beibei, the centre had seen the successful birth of two cloned calves
in November 2001, they were named "Kangkang" and "Shuang-shuang."
After inspections of the two calves revealed normal results, researchers with
the centre acquired 13 embryos from the two cloned calves using the ovulation
embryo transfer technology in January of this year.
The 13 embryos have all met international embryo transfer standards and then
been preserved by vaperification, a technology that can freeze embryos in a
short amount of time, said Dr Dong Yajuan with the centre.
Beibei was born after researchers transplanted part of the frozen embryos
into the womb of a cow.
Insiders said the success of this experiment can provide
technological support to the industrialization of embryo transfer technology.