China's first heterogenous cloned Asian antelope born on Jan. 21
in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was in stable
condition by press time, according to the Xinjiang Urban Daily.
Different from the homogenous reproduction of the world's first
cloned sheep "Dolly", the newly born antelope is developed by
combining an Asian antelope's body cell with a goat's egg cell.
In April 2003, researchers from the Xinjiang Jinniu Biology Co
Ltd took a cell from ear of an Asian antelope in a zoo in Lanzhou
City of northwest China's Gansu Province and put it in a goat egg
cell to form an embryo.
The embryo was put in the uterus of a goat on Sept. 8, 2003 and
four months later the cloned antelope was born in Xinjiang, 0.42m
long, 0.35m high and weighing 2.32 kg.
Xu Yixuan, a researcher from the Xinjiang Jinniu, said the
antelope was in healthy condition since birth with its weight
increasing by 0.2 kg every day.
Asian Antelope, also dubbed as North Goat, is a national
protected animal and mainly lives in northwest China's Xinjiang,
Gansu, Qinghai and north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region.
Researchers from the Xinjiang Jinniu are now working on the
cloning of argals, an endangered animal in the country.
(China Daily February 1, 2004)