Tokyo - Just days after the birth of calves cloned from an adult cow, Japanese scientists said Tuesday that calves cloned from cells from adults' ears and buttocks could be on the way.
If the experiment succeeds, the calves would be the first clones from cells other than those from an animal's reproductive organs, said the Nara State Livestock Research Center in western Japan.
“We are currently in the process of experimenting with cells taken from various parts of adult cows to figure out the most effective way to produce adult-clone calves,” said center spokesman Katsuhiko Hata.
Cloning an adult is better than relying on the relative uncertainty of cells from a fetus, because scientists can select adults that have already demonstrated their ability to produce more milk or high-quality beef.
“The next step is to find ways that are the least stressful to cows,” Hata said in a telephone interview from the center, about 260 miles southwest of Tokyo.
The world's first two adult-cow clones were born at another Japanese livestock research center.
The calves were produced with a technique similar to that used for Dolly, the British sheep that two years ago became the first clone produced from cells of an adult animal.
At the Nara center, five surrogate cows have been impregnated, with delivery expected between mid-December and mid-January, Hata said.
The center took cells from ears and buttock muscles and somatic cells from adult Japanese beef cows as well as a Holstein fetus, and placed them in unfertilized eggs whose own nuclei had been removed.
Artificially cultivated embryos were then placed into the wombs of 13 cows in February, Hata said. Seven of the cows became pregnant, but two had miscarriages, he said.
On Feb. 16, scientists in the United States produced a clone calf from cells of a fetus, not an adult cow cell.
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