Dairy News

Calf born from cloned bull’s semen

Thursday, 18/06/2015

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/

Karnal : Scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) have successfully delivered a healthy female calf from the semen of a cloned bull, ‘Shrestha’, which was born from somatic cell of an elite bull on August 26, 2010.

The calf was born on March 29, 2015, but the scientists kept the news secret as they strictly monitored its health and other growth parameters.

“It is a great success achieved by NDRI scientists as it is the first-ever delivery from the semen of a cloned bull in the world,” said NDRI Director Dr AK Srivastava, adding the newborn calf was normal and healthy.

He said: “The birth of the calf has proved that the cloned bull is fertile. It could be used as one of the assisted reproductive technology for multiplication of quality germ-plasm.” The development would help mitigate the shortage of availability of quality semen dosages in the country. There was a shortage of around 90 million dosages of semen, he added. The scientists has ascertained that the quality of semen of the cloned bull is excellent in terms of post-thaw motility, live and death percentage of spermatozoa and semen abnormality.

Srivastava said there were four more buffalos being conceived through the cloned bull’s semen. Three of them were expected to deliver in coming three months, while the fourth one in November.

The team behind the feat comprised Dr AK Chakravarty, Head, Dairy Cattle Breeding Division; Dr SS Lathwal, in charge, Livestock Research Station; Dr TK Mohanty, in charge, Artificial Breeding Research Station; and Dr Subhash Chand, senior technical officer of the institute.