News Release

University of Georgia unveils technique to improve success rate of cattle cloning

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Georgia

Researchers at the University of Georgia today announced a technique which may dramatically improve the success rate of cattle cloning, and displayed eight cloned cattle ranging in age from two months to four months as evidence of their success.

As little as two years ago, the highest rate of success for cloning attempts was one in 20; this technique has a success rate of one in seven, almost three times as high.

"To produce offspring and develop methods to improve the efficiency of the cloning process has been our goal," said Steve Stice, who directed the research. The calves will help pave the way for improved cloning technology, say experts with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The improved technology, scientists say, will allow the livestock industry to efficiently meet consumers' growing demand for consistent, quality meat products.

About 200 cloned embryos are produced in Stice's lab each day. Only 10 to 20 percent of those embryos make it through the first seven days to be then transferred into recipient cows, he said. But with the development of the eight full-term, healthy calves, Stice said,"We've shown significant improvement in the process."

Stice is a professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar with the UGA animal and dairy science department.

The calves are clones of a cow that had grown too old to reproduce but had desirable traits worth preserving, he said. The cloning process doesn't change the genetic makeup. It repeats it, just like an identical twin in nature.

"Improvement in the efficiency of cloning will allow us to reproduce those individuals, bulls or cows, that have lost the ability to reproduce because of age or accident," said Larry Benyshek, CAES animal and dairy science department head. "If we can spread improved genetics at a faster rate," Benyshek said, "this will be a great benefit for producers. That has ramifications for consumers and the public in general."

Established breeding programs lead to the genetic traits farmers want, such as consistent meat and better breeding and nurturing characteristics, Stice said. Cloning allows a way to more easily duplicate those traits. But there are still improvements to be made. "The next step is to take it further and make additional jumps in pregnancy rates," Stice said.

The UGA calves were cloned using technology developed in collaboration between the UGA animal and dairy science department and Athens-based Prolinia, Inc. The technology will be patented by UGA and licensed by Prolinia. The company is not only developing its own cloning technology but is also combining and cooperating with other companies to further develop the cloning process, said Prolinia president Mike Wanner.

One of the eight calves was cloned using a combination of the technology in Athens with technology developed by Geron, the company that produced Dolly the sheep, Wanner said.

"This is a fantastic breakthrough," said Benyshek. "It's right in line with many breakthroughs in animal biotechnology. We'll have to become more efficient so there is more product to meet demand without harming the environment and to allow us to produce more on a smaller quantity of land. This research is certainly a step in that direction."

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