UK Press / Ananova: 8th October 2000
In a major breakthrough, researchers in the United States are cloning a
rare Asian gaur - with the help of an ordinary cow called Bessie, according
to a report in the Washington Post newspapers.
The gaur, an ox-like jungle animal native to India and Burma, is due to be
born to Bessie next month - the first creature from an endangered breed
ever to be cloned in the womb of another species.
A single skin cell from a dead gaur was fused to cows' eggs from which the
genes had been removed, thus creating an embryo with the gaur's
characteristics, said the report, based on an article latest issue of the
specialist journal Cloning.
Now the Massachusetts scientists are looking to clone giant pandas and,
later this year, intend to recreate a species of Spanish mountain goat
which is believed to be extinct after the last known individual animal died
nine months ago.
Some of the goat's cells were preserved, and if the landmark experiment
were to succeed in using them to create new goats, the scientists will have
achieved the world's first resurrection of an extinct species.
There are problems with the technology, both ethical and practical. In the
case of the giant panda, its closest relatives, racoons and rabbits, are
not ideal surrogate mothers, so a female black bear is being lined up to
carry the baby.
The ethical implications of cloning are also unresolved, with some
conservationists arguing that the technology flies in the face of Nature
and create homogenous populations of duplicate creatures.
