World's first cloned buffalo calf dies of pneumonia

Indian scientists said they have cloned the world's first buffalo, but the calf dies of phenumonia with a week of its birth.The calf, which was born on February 6 and was yet to be named, died on Wednesday night, A.K.Srivastava, director of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) told reporters from Karnal.The buffalo calf, the first to be produced in the world, was cloned using a simpler but advanced version of a technique employed in producing Dolly-the sheep that became the first mammal to be cloned. The infection was caused due to complications at the time of ts birth, he said, but added that the cloning technique itself was not faulty.Dolly, which was cloned from an adult cell in 1996 and revealed to the world seven months later, was put down in 2003 following a lung disease.Srivastava said the institute was in the process of producing two more clones with cell taken from female buffaloes and the delivery is set for May and June. The hand guided cloning technique perfected by the NDRI scientists, would allow production of calf if the desired sex, he said.The cloning if the buffalo calf was done by a team of six scientists S.K.Singla, RS Manik, MS Chauhan, P Palta, RS Shah and A George.

The New Indian Express, 13th February 2009