Researchers to Clone Water Buffalo

[buzzsaw_23]

Researchers to clone water buffalo
September 23, 2005 - 9:29PM

Researchers in the Philippines say they are close to creating the world's first clone of a water buffalo that could eventually help raise productivity levels for millions of impoverished farmers.

The aim is to replicate a "super buffalo" that would boost the genetic make-up and milk production of the native water buffalo, the carabao, said Dr Libertado Cruz, executive director of the government-run Philippine Carabao Centre.

"We are now in the process of transferring the cloned embryos to a surrogate dam (mother)," he told Reuters. By the middle of next year we can expect some live animals."



The indebted southeast Asian nation is not usually known for technological innovation, but Cruz said cloning had become easier and less expensive since Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, entered the world in 1997.

http://smh.com.au/news/World/Researchers-to-clone-water-buffalo/2005/09/23/1126982230488.html

Rarely a mention of awful Dolly's health was and how much attention was required to keep "her" alive.

[tainowarrior]

1. well...

I'm not against cloning for livestock production, if it works. Imagine if we could have a virtually limitless supply of food. We could feed all the hungry!

If it can be made safe, I'd support it.

[Spinzonner]

2. There is no free lunch

even if it's made from water Buffalo.

Large scale cloning is a risk to genetic variation and makes populations more susceptible to devastating epidemics.

[tainowarrior]

3. has this been proven? nt

[Lerkfish]

4. yup, there's a good reason for diverse gene pools.

[YDogg]

5. Photograph of a cloned(?) water buffalo

[mikeytherat]

6. Fred or Barney?

Sorry. Had to.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/fiction/fraternities/buffaloes.html

mikey_the_rat