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World's First Cloned Horse


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#1 kevin

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Posted 07 August 2003 - 04:02 AM


From Reuters.com

World's First Cloned Horse Born to Its Genetic Twin
Wed August 6, 2003 02:10 PM ET

By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Italian scientists said Wednesday they had created the world's first cloned horse from an adult cell taken from the horse who gave birth to her.

Prometea, a healthy female, weighed in at 80 lbs when she was born during a natural delivery May 28, 2003 in Italy after a normal, full-term pregnancy.

Although sheep, mice, cats, cattle, goats and pigs have already been cloned, Prometea is the first animal known to be carried and born by the mother from which she was cloned.

"This is the first horse that has been cloned from an adult cell. She has been carrying herself, so the newborn is the twin of the mother that carried the pregnancy," said Dr Cesare Galli, of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology, a nonprofit research organization in Cremona, Italy.

Until now it had been thought that a pregnancy would depend on the mother's immune system recognizing the fetus as something different from itself.

"People would not have expected it to be possible," said Galli, referring to the mother giving birth to her own clone.

Galli and his team reported their success in the science journal Nature.

NAMED AFTER GREEK GOD

Named after Prometheus, who in Greek mythology was punished for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humans, the foal was created through nuclear transfer -- the same technique used for Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal.

Galli and his team removed a skin cell from the mother and fused it to an egg from which the nucleus had been removed. After the activated egg was grown in the laboratory it was replaced in the horse from which it had been cloned.

The scientists started out with more 800 manipulated eggs using male and female cells. Twenty-two developed into seven-day-old embryos and 17 were transferred into nine horses. Four pregnancies resulted but Prometea was the only live animal.

"Our result adds the horse to the list of mammals that have so far been successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell," Galli and his team said in their report.

In addition to the scientific achievement, he believes Prometea could lead to cloning of champion geldings, castrated horses.

"There is an interest in cloning those animals because they cannot reproduce anymore because they were castrated at a young age. A good proportion of sporting champions are geldings," said Galli.

If regulations in the breeding industry allowed cloning, it would be an immediate possibility.

"You would make a copy of an animal that cannot reproduce so you could use it as a stallion to serve mares," he explained.

Galli said cloning sporting animals would not guarantee generations of cloned champions, because many factors, including character and the interaction with people who train them, were important for producing top racing horses.

Galli and his team have already cloned bulls and cows.

Edited by kevin, 07 August 2003 - 05:17 PM.


#2 kevin

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Posted 07 August 2003 - 05:17 PM

----------------------------
Italian Scientists Get Cloning Requests
Thu August 7, 2003 12:45 PM ET
By Antonio Denti


CREMONA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian researchers behind the first ever cloned horse said on Thursday they had already received requests to produce replicas of top thoroughbreds, a move which could rattle a multi-million dollar racing industry.

Cesare Galli, whose team at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology reported the successful birth of filly Prometea on Wednesday, said his scientists had the technical know-how to create carbon copies of the world's greatest racehorses.

"I think that's the immediate application and the most obvious one," Galli told Reuters at his laboratory in Cremona, 75 km southeast of Milan.

"In fact we have already been approached by people who are interested in cloning such animals. It is quite a safe and simple procedure," he said.

Prometea -- the only filly to be born after 800 eggs were manipulated by Galli's team -- was the first horse to be successfully cloned from an adult cell and also the first to be carried and born by the mother from which she was cloned.

"Fifty percent of sports champions are geldings (castrated horses) and therefore will never be able to contribute with their genes, so cloning is a real option."

Horses are often castrated in the interest of limiting the gene pool or to alter the animal's behavior. Cloning could replace natural conception for these horses, Galli said.

The birth, which reportedly cost 100,000 euros ($113,500), has sent shudders down the spine of the racing world, with the fear that if carbon copies of racehorses flooded the exclusive gene pools of champion racers, they could ultimately undermine a the racing business and a hugely popular sport.

But John Maxse, director of public affairs at Britain's Jockey Club, which regulates the horse racing industry, said no cloned horses could race under current rules.

Maxse said the industry would strongly resist any moves in the future to allow cloned horses to race.

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT

"About 70 racing countries around the world have signed up to an international agreement which bars any horse -- other than those which have been naturally created, and born -- from running," Maxse told Reuters by telephone from London.

"A cloned horse is not eligible to run, nor is it eligible to be...'registered' in the stud book," he said.

But the prospect of carbon copies of thoroughbreds at all would be unsettling.

Stud books, available in all racing countries, record and publish the names and lineage of all thoroughbred horses. They also include records of genetic identity, or DNA.

Cloned horses would dilute the gene pool, devalue existing stallions and undermine the entire industry, Maxse said. "On a fundamental, ethical point of view, racing is a sport. And sport is dependent on the unpredictability of the result."

Italian racing fans at least, should be reassured -- the breeder of Italy's homegrown superstar, Varenne, immediately dismissed any possibility the horse could be cloned. Italy named the champion trotter "athlete of the year" in 2001.

"Varenne's clone would be physically identical, but what would be his character, his concentration span, his desire to win?," Roberto Brischetto told the La Repubblica daily.

"These are qualities you cannot clone."

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#3 DJS

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Posted 07 August 2003 - 11:49 PM

The opposition makes itself heard...


drudgereport.com

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#4 kevin

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Posted 08 August 2003 - 12:01 AM

Which begs the question.. Is it better to have lived a clone then never to have lived at all? At least the Vatican is providing a little direction in terms of what the Bible may have to say about diddling with the DNA of other organisms. In regards to GM foods they seem to have taken the formal position that...

"The Book of Genesis clearly establishes the domination of man over nature," says a Vatican official. "God has entrusted mankind to preserve nature but also to use it."


(from http://www.betterhum...D=2003-08-06-3)

I wonder if they'll extend that lovely sentiment to the cloning of animals for human benefit, from food to entertainment...




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