Content area
Abstract
Quebec researchers said yesterday they had cloned a male calf from the cells of Canada's world-renowned Starbuck Holstein bull, which sired more than 200,000 offspring.
The cloned calf, temporarily known as Starbuck II, weighed 55 kilograms at birth.
"We expect that the calf will be as productive as his father, but for longer," said [Michel Saint-Pierre], stressing the cloning focused on the transmission of quality from Starbuck.
Full text
Quebec researchers said yesterday they had cloned a male calf from the cells of Canada's world-renowned Starbuck Holstein bull, which sired more than 200,000 offspring.
Scientists at Quebec's Artificial Insemination Centre and the University of Montreal's veterinary faculty are expected to make the official announcement of the Sept. 7 birth at a news conference to be held next Wednesday.
"Starbuck was a truly international star and we are giving birth to a new star," said Michel Saint-Pierre, general manager at the artificial insemination centre.
The cloned calf, temporarily known as Starbuck II, weighed 55 kilograms at birth.
Scientists say he is doing extremely well.
"He is a perfect copy of his father. The critical stage is over and (he) is very healthy," said Saint-Pierre.
A spokesperson for the researchers said yesterday the event is a Canadian first on two levels.
"It's the first bull to be cloned in Canada and all other cloning has been done with younger animals," said Roch Landriault.
The announcement comes three years after the controversial, ground-breaking cloning experiment in 1997 that produced Dolly, a sheep now living in Scotland that has given birth to lambs for the third consecutive year.
Ethicist Margaret Somerville, founding director at Montreal's McGill University Ethics Centre, said yesterday the news about cloning was somewhat worrying.
"There is obviously big commercial interest in doing this. People want to have the best animal they can, but on the other hand there is a lot to be said for maintaining a certain degree of diversity," she said.
"If you took this to an extreme and said everybody wanted the same identical animal in the world, then there is a real concern about doing that, even in agriculture. If there is any challenge to ecological systems, the less diverse they are the more vulnerable they are. We have to be conscious about what we are doing," she added.
The original Starbuck, a celebrity in the agricultural community until his death at the age 20 in 1998, was famous for his sturdy dairy frame, superb feet and legs.
Starbuck's frozen sperm was sold in more than 70 countries and extended the genetic line of the near-perfect specimen of a bull beyond his natural lifespan.
Tissue and cells were taken from Starbuck before he died in the fall of 1998 and a cloned embryo was transplanted into a cow in December, 1999, the spokesperson said.
"We expect that the calf will be as productive as his father, but for longer," said Saint-Pierre, stressing the cloning focused on the transmission of quality from Starbuck.
Starbuck II is not the first animal to be cloned in Canada.
Last year, Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. of Montreal claimed to produce the world's first cloned goats with hopes of developing "super-milk" for medical uses.
Credit: Reuters-CP
Copyright 2000 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.