TWIN FEMALE CALVES CLONED IN JAPAN

July 6, 1998

KANAZAWA (Yomiuri Shimbun) -- Scientists on Sunday announced the birth of cloned twin female calves using somatic cells taken from an adult cow in Ishikawa Prefecture.

They are believed to be the first cloned calves to be born using this technique.

The scientists -- from Kinki University's animal husbandry research group and the Ishikawa Prefectural Livestock Research Center -- expect that this technique will lead to the mass production of cattle with high-quality beef or with a larger milk production because it allows the cattle to inherit all of the characteristics of the cow that provided the somatic cells.

In the past, calves have successfully been cloned using cells taken from a cow fetus in the United States, according to the scientists at the research center.

The successful birth of the cloned calves also marked the second case in which a mammal has been cloned from somatic cells, following the birth of Dolly, the British sheep cloned from a mature cell on July 5, 1996, they said.

The scientists then applied small electric jolts to the transplanted eggs, making them divide to produce embryos.

In mid-November last year, they implanted an embryo into the wombs of the cows. The scientists confirmed all five cows had become pregnant in January.

On Sunday morning, one of the five cows gave birth to the twin calves, which the scientists said occurred more than 40 days earlier than expected,. the calves were reportedly born around 6:30 a.m.

The calves weighted about 17-18 kilograms, about 70 percent of the average weight for newly born calves, they said, adding that they were in good shape.

The research center reportedly asked the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry's National Institute of Animal Industry's National Institute of Animal Industry to conduct DNA tests to determine whether the twin calves and the cow from the somatic cells had been removed shared the same genes.

Mitsuo Kita, a senior researcher at the center, said, "It was not clear whether clones produced by fertilized eggs or somatic cells from a cow fetus would show the inherited characteristics like we anticipated.

"But it is not wrong to say the somatic cells-cloned calves inherited almost all characteristics from the cow whose somatic cells had been removed.

"This method will make it possible to breed a large number of cattle with high- quality beef or larger milk production."

However, a consumer's organization on Sunday disputed the scientists' claim that calves with identical characteristics would be born to cows using the somatic cell technique.

In January, twelve cows were made pregnant through the use of somatic cells taken from an adult cow in a joint research project conducted by the National Institute of Animal Industry and the Kagoshima prefectural government.

Four cows were also made pregnant by the same method in Oita Prefecture in January, the Oita prefectural government said.

all the cows, along with the five pregnant cows in Ishikawa Prefecture, were expected to give birth to calves in August, the scientists said.

In another case, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations successfully cloned a calf by increasing the number of cells of externally fertilized eggs.