Equine Cloning – The Next Generation

With the advent of the first equine clone, there was speculation by some as to whether the cloned animal would be reproductively sound. Researchers and scientist had no such doubts, and that has now been proven with the first pregnancies being announced in and by cloned horses.

Prof. Cesare Galli, from Italy, who was responsible for the first cloned horse, has announced that the clone Prometea (who was in fact a clone of her own dam) is pregnant and due to foal in 2008. Cryozootech have announced that “Pieraz-Cryozootech-Stallion” – an entire clone of the gelding “Pieraz” – has been bred to Dziupla, one of the best endurance mares in France from the Vialaret farm. This once again raises the question of the stance taken by some registries to not record or register cloned horses – there would have been no way genetically to differentiate the Pieraz clone’s foal from a foal sired by Pieraz himself, had it not been for the fact that the original horse was a gelding!

You can find this and more great equine reproduction information at: http://www.equine-reproduction.com/index.shtml

Be Sociable, Share!

•