Yangyang, one of the first group of China's cloned goats, gave birth to twins of different genders in northwest China at around 7:30 a.m. Friday, but only the female survived.
It was the second time for Yangyang to produce twins of different genders after she gave birth to Huanhuan and Qingqing in August 2001 in the Yangling animal cloning center in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.
The newborn twins with white wool are result of the natural mating of Yangyang with an Angolan goat Weiwei.
Veterinarians injected some nutrition into the weak goatlings and provided them with oxygen therapy. The 1.5-kg female Lele managed to stand up at noon on Friday, but the male goat Kuaikuai weighing 1.9 kg, died about seven hours after his birth.
Yangyang was cloned from an adult goat body cell in 2000. Her daughter Qingqing has also been found pregnant and is ready to give birth this month.
"The bearing of twins by Yangyang and Qingqing's first pregnancy prove that a goat cloned from body cells has the same normal reproductive ability," said Wang Qianghua, a professor of the Northwest China Science and Technology University for Agriculture and Forestry.
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)
