HONG KONG, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- China produced its first cloned calf on Friday in Jinan, in eastern China's Shandong province, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
First photographs showed the black and white female calf named Weiwei drinking from an infant's bottle. Weiwei was born by caesarian section at 9:25 pm on Friday.
"Weiwei is China's first calf to be born following the embryo production and transplantation technology, which shows China's cloning technology has reached the world's most advanced level," Xinhua reported Chen Dayuan, a research fellow with the Animal Research Institution under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as saying.
The Animal Embryo Project Center in Caoxian County has 12 pregnant cows in the scientific experiment and all are expected to give birth to cloned calves within the next 20 days. CAS scientists are monitoring the expectant mothers closely.
The experiment began, said Xinhua, when researchers removed cells from the ears of a bull and a high-yield dairy cow. Those were combined with the cells with the oocytes of different cattle. The cloned embryos were then implanted in the cows. Chen told the agency this was the first such successful experiment of its kind conducted in China.
Cloned calves have been previously born in China in Guangdong and Laiyang provinces but the embryos were imported from abroad.
"Scientists here expected the cow cloning technology has a broad market potential, and it can also provide experience for exploring related technology to be used to clone rare species, such as the Giant Panda," said the agency.
Scientists said they expected the cow cloning technology to move into production in China in three to five years.
