Cloning comes to the rescue of a lady

By J. Travis

In a last-ditch attempt to save an endangered breed of cattle, scientists in New Zealand have cloned a cow named Lady. They plan someday to artificially inseminate her genetically identical calf, a 2-week-old female named Elsie, with sperm now frozen for storage.

Until Elsie’s birth, Lady was the last female survivor of the Enderby Island breed, which had been living in isolation on the icy island near New Zealand for more than a century. For several years, scientists tried to use in vitro fertilization, but Lady only gave birth to a single bull. Worried about the cow’s advancing age—she’s now 7 years old—researchers decided to attempt to clone her using a technique similar to the one that created Dolly the sheep. Genetic tests have confirmed that Elsie is a clone of Lady.

"With [Elsie’s birth], we have vastly improved the chances of saving this endangered breed, which had adapted genetically to live in sub-Antarctic conditions," says David N. Wells of the Ruakura Research Center in Hamilton, New Zealand, who led the cloning effort.

Further Readings:

Wells, D.N. 1997. Production of cloned lambs from an established embryonic cell line: A comparison between in vivo- and in vitro-matured cytoplasts. Biology of Reproduction 57(August):385.

Sources:

David N. Wells
Ruakura Research Center
AgResearch
PB 3123 Hamilton
New Zealand

From Science News, Vol. 154, No. 10, September 5, 1998, p. 152.