Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

 
WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Scientists said on Friday they had successfully cloned a gaur, the first example of an endangered species to be cloned, but in an ironic twist the ox-like animal died of an infection shortly after birth.

Nonetheless, the researchers said the experiment showed that cloning could be used to perpetuate rare species and to even keep some endangered animals from going extinct.

The gaur, named Noah, was born on Monday night. It died from a bacterial infection two days later but was healthy until then, the team at Advanced Cell Technologies said.

"Even though we did lose Noah, unfortunately, this is still a major breakthrough," Philip Damiani, a researcher at the privately held company, said in a telephone interview.

"Noah died from clostridial enteritis, a bacterial infection that is almost universally fatal in newborn animals," Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at the company, said in a statement.

"However, despite this setback, the birth of Noah is grounds for hope. We still have a long way to go but as this technology evolves, it has the potential to save dozens of endangered species."

Damiani said Noah was "a vigorous and friendly calf" before he died.

"We are just very devastated that we lost him to something as common as clostridium," Damiani added. "He had little horn buds already. He was ornery."

Gaurs are native to southeast Asia and India. The wild oxen are brown or black with a hump-like ridge on the back.

Being huge, meaty animals -- weighing a ton or more -- they have been hunted to the point of endangerment.

CLONED FROM LONG-DEAD MALE GAUR

Noah was cloned using the cells of a male gaur that died eight years ago at the San Diego zoo. Its skin cells were frozen at the time with an eye to possibly cloning it one day.

The team at Advanced Cell, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, took the nucleus out of hundreds of skin cells and put them into the hollowed-out eggs of domestic cows.

They got 40 embryos and implanted them into cows. Only one successful pregnancy resulted -- two others were sacrificed to make sure the calves were developing normally. Noah was born weighing 80 pounds (36 kg), the researchers reported.

Damiani said they would try again.

"We have the cells that are still frozen -- we can make fresh embryos," he said. "All we have to do is thaw out the cells and make the embryos again."

The company hopes to clone an endangered mountain goat later this year and is still negotiating with the Spanish government over this. Researchers there also hope to clone a cheetah and a panda.

Advanced Cell was formed with the idea of making genetically engineered cattle that can produce human proteins in their milk.

Cattle and gaurs are fairly closely related and can mate. Damiani said his group is looking at using cross-species cloning on animals that are less closely related.

In 1998 a researcher at the company used cloning technology to join one of his own cells to a cow's egg, effectively cloning himself, although the embryo that resulted was stopped at a very early stage.

16:26 01-12-01

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Noah receives oxygen shortly after birth