Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 12:47 am Post subject: Italians Clone a Champion Race Stallion |
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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/300536p-257163c.html
| Quote: | Neigh it ain't so!
Italians Clone a Champion Race Stallion
BY DON SINGLETON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cloned foal, whom scientists in Cremona, Italy, gave the rolls-off-the-tongue name of Pieraz-Cryozootech, is only the second horse ever cloned and the first male.
After years of trying, scientists in Italy have cloned a stallion from a sterile champion racehorse, raising the specter of armies of Secretariats and Man o' Wars.
But don't look for such duplicates on tracks in the United States - clones are barred from thoroughbred racing here.
The foal, born in February, is only the second horse clone ever born, and the first male; the first one, a filly named Prometea, is now 2 years old.
The two equine clones were created at the laboratory of Prof. Cesare Galli in Cremona, not far from Milan, the London Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.
It was Galli who announced the birth of the foal, which is named Pieraz-Cryozootech.
The foal's "sire" was Pieraz, an Arabian gelding that won the world endurance race championship in 1994 and 1996 and currently lives in retirement in Fort Valley, Va., at the stables of his owner, trainer and rider, Valerie Kanavy.
Scientists in Galli's Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona collected skin cells from Pieraz and transferred their DNA to egg cells that had been emptied of their own genetic material. The resulting embryos were then transferred into the wombs of surrogate mares, the Telegraph said.
"The original horse is a champion with a good record, but was gelded, so couldn't have any offspring," Galli told the Telegraph.
"In these cases, the best horses are never bred, so they do not contribute to genetic progress. What we have achieved overcomes this problem. In two or three years, the cloned foal can be used as a stallion," Galli said.
Not likely, said Bob Curran, spokesman for the Jockey Club, the official breed registry in North America.
"So far as we're concerned, it's a fantasy," Curran said yesterday. "The Jockey Club would not register a cloned animal, nor a foal that resulted from a cloned animal."
Originally published on April 16, 2005
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