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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING | |||||||||||
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From the Ear of a Holstein Arises Amy, a Cloned Cow She's the first farm animal cloned from an adult in the U.S. First there was Dolly. The famous cloned sheep from Scotland spawned, not just an ethical quandary over cloning, but a scientific controversy as well. For months afterward, no other lab could duplicate the feat of cloning an adult animal. Even as they routinely copied other critters using embryonic cells, some scientists wondered if Dolly really did spring from an adult cell. But the scientific puzzle is being gradually solved. Last year, researchers in Hawaii successfully cloned mice from adult cells. And now, after years of trying, the U.S. has its own large animal created from the cell of an adult. On June 10, at 10:30 in the morning, a team of scientists at the University of Connecticut led by Xiangshong (Jerry) Yang delivered a 94-pound Holstein calf by Caesarian section. They named her Amy. "Dozens of laboratories around the nation have been racing to produce the first clones from adult farm animals, particularly cows," says Yang. "We're happy to be the first one." Amy also represents an advance on Dolly. The Scottish sheep was cloned from cells taken from a ewe's mammary tissue. Using that method, obviously, researchers could clone only females. In contrast, Yang was able to start with a skin cell, taken from the ear of an adult Holstein. That makes it possible to clone animals of either sex and of any age. Amy's progenitor, for instance, is a 13-year-old cow known for her high milk production. Yang and others believe cloning will be key to rapidly creating herds of high-valued farm animals or creating animals for research. By John Carey in Washington
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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