Italian Researchers Announce Birth of Worlds First Cloned Horse

Italian researchers have announced the birth of the world’s first cloned horse. Prometea, a healthy female, was born in May after a normal uncomplicated full-term pregnancy. She is the first animal known to have been carried and born to the animal from which she was cloned, thus meaning that the horse was pregnant with its genetic-self or twin, something that was not thought possible. Prometea was created by Dr Cesare Galli and colleagues at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology, a non-profit research organization in Cremona, Italy. The researchers used a technique called nuclear transfer, the same technique that was used to create the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep. This involved removing a skin cell from the mother and fusing it to an egg from which the nucleus had been removed. The manipulated egg is then activated with electricity, and grown in the laboratory. If successful, the egg develops into a fetus, which is then transferred back into the horse from which it has been cloned. Prometea was definitely not the only attempt at cloning a horse the scientists made. Galli began with more than 800 manipulated eggs. Just twenty-two of these developed into seven-day-old embryos and 17 were transferred into nine horses. This resulted in four pregnancies, however Prometea was the only animal to be born alive.

SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 6th August 2003.