SHANDONG, China, March 31 (UPI) -- One of China's cloned cows, named Fu Fu, successfully gave birth to a male calf Wednesday, confirming that cloned cattle can reproduce normally.
Technicians from the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Zoology in Shandong province said the calf, Xing Xing, was born with completely normal weight, height, heartbeat rate, temperature, and breath, Xinhua, China's main government news service, reported Wednesday.
Chinese scientists have been conductng research on somatic cell cloning since 2001, producing the world's first 12 somatic cell-cloned calves in January 2002.
Of those 12, only Fu Fu and four others survived. The cows were all artificially fertilized, and the remaining four are expected to give birth in the near future.
