It's a girl: Scientists in Dubai claim first cloned camel
- |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai, the second-largest sheikdom in the United Arab Emirates, said it has cloned a camel for the first time and called it Injaz, or "achievement" in Arabic.
The female camel was born last Wednesday, the Camel Reproduction Centre financed by the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, said yesterday.
The first animal cloned from adult cells was Dolly the sheep, born in the United Kingdom in 1996. Since then, others have included mice, cattle, goats, rabbits, cats, mules, and pigs.
"This significant breakthrough in our research program gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk-producing camels in the future," Lulu Skidmore, scientific director of the Camel Reproduction Centre, said in an e-mailed statement.
Injaz was created by cells harvested from the ovary of an adult female camel, the center said.
The cells were then injected into a camel egg from which the nucleus had been removed.
The resulting embryo was transferred to the uterus of a surrogate camel.
