From the first embryo-cloned Boer goat to thestart-up of the project on soma-cloned productivecow, Tianjin is forging ahead towardsthe international advanced technology level inthe field of animal cloning.

In 2002, Tianjin started the Project on Embryo-Cloned Boer Goat. Jinsheng, the first embryoclonedBoer goat in the world, was born on November2, 2005 in Tianjin. Jinsheng gave birthto a mixed twin, Jinbao and Jinhua, in Marchof 2006. Jinhua has survived and remainedin good condition. On April 9, 2007, the firstsoma-cloned Boer goat in China was born,named Jinying.

On June 26, 2008, Jinying, who was more thanone year old, and a pure-breed Boer bill goatgot “happily married”.

Meanwhile, the project on cloned productivecows was started. On July 3, 2008, the expertsof Tianjin Cloned Productive Cow Project Teamextracted the skin cells from the ears of fiveHolstein cows and carried out embryo culture.

On July 26, all of the extracted cells survived.“Next step is to extract the cell nucleus fromthe survived cells to substitute the nucleus ofan oocyte from an ordinary cow and transplantthe new cell to another cow, thus realizing thecloning,” said Ding Boliang, Head of Tianjin Instituteof Zootechnics and Veterinary Science,“any ordinary cow can be the receptor of transplantedcells.”

According to sources, in the internationalresearch arena, the success rate of cloningcows using somatic cells could only reach twoto three percent. “We do hope we are able tosucceed in one try. But objectively speaking, ittakes at least two to three years to fully understandand master the technique of cow cloning,”said Ding Boliang.

Presently, Tianjin soma-cloned cow project isin the charge of Dr. Liu Haijun, an animal-cloningexpert, and is supported technologically byDr. Liu Ling, an American scientist of Chineseorigin from the University of Texas. These twoexperts both took part in the laboratory workon Tianjin embryo-cloned goat and somaclonedgoat, and are very experienced in scientificresearches.

“So far, Tianjin has achieved the internationallevel in the field of Boer goat soma-cloningtechnology. It is believed that through the jointeffort of the research team, we would succeedin the experiment on cloning productive cows,”said Dr. Liu Ling.

Ding Boliang said that the research carried outin Tianjin on animal-cloning technology wasmainly to produce “cloned food”. Further testson the feasibility of using cloned animals forfood will be conducted in future experiments.The ultimate aim of the research and developmentwork on the technology is to keep thebest species and genes to ensure the massreproduction of high quality species. Therefore,the prospect of cloned food production shouldbe possible.

According to Ding Boliang, when Tianjin isstarting up the project on soma-cloned productivecow, a new project on soma-clonedBoer goat is also underway without invitingmuch attention.

“We shall accumulate more experience in ournew project on Boer goat cloning experiment.It is planned that eight to ten goats will be successfullycloned and efforts will be made incloning bill goats to fill in the research gap,” LiuHaijun said.