Yangyang, a female goat cloned from somatic cells of an adult goat by Chinese scientists, will deliver a kid in early August, said sources with the China Yangling Cloned Animals Base in Shaanxi Province, northwest China.

Wang Qianghua, a professor at the base, said Yangyang has been pregnant for more than four months, and this proves that goats cloned from somatic cells and embryos can cross-fertilize and reproduce as normally as ordinary goats.

Yangyang was born at the breeding sheep base of the Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology on June 22 last year. She is currently in good health, the sources said.

Yangyang is the second goat cloned from somatic cells at the base. The first, also a female, died from respiratory failure stemming from undeveloped lungs 36 hours after she was born.

The father of Yanyang's offspring is a goat cloned from an embryo at the base, according to Wang.

A goat's normal gestation is five months, Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency 07/25/2001)